Upheaval
by Steele Rose
Summary: A guild created from absolutely nothing takes on the Labyrinth in Armoroad. Five nobodies rise and change the culture of the city. Etrian Odyssey III.
1. Chapter 1: Recruitment

Name: Pierce Adtsauw

Class: Gladiator

Hair: White-Blond

Eyes: Red

Hometown: "Rad City for Attractive People"

Age: 18

Charm Point: Ego

A headstrong young man with a relatively high ego, but reliable with his words, Pierce came to Armoroad with Twitch in search of a good challenge. He met Twitch as a young teenager while looking for a job. The two have formed an unbreakable bond and have bonked heads for six years. He has a sweet tooth and has mild allergic reactions to string beans.

Pierce lived with a young shopkeeping woman not much older than him. His antics with Twitch put the young woman's shop in a lot of trouble, thus forcing Pierce to make money and move out with Twitch.

* * *

"How much longer should this take?"

"It's right up ahead, Pierce, believe me. Just wait about another hour or so."

"I'm hungry. I mean, really hungry."

"I hear ya."

* * *

The ship hits the harbor, and a wave of cheers sound throughout the ship. It's a new day for Pierce and Twitch. They're lives have taken a new route, and they're going forward together. Armoroad is known as the ocean city. Many tourists come for vacations at the beaches during the day, and have drinks during the night. But that isn't Armoroad's main attraction. Dozens of adventurers challenge the Yggdrassil Labyrinth, which is said to hold seven god-like beasts, three of which most likely don't even exist. But the mystery held and the potential profit made by this enormous labyrinth is enough to take the interest of many adventurers. Many have perished from the beasts that live within the labyrinth, but there is much fortune to be gained from coming in, and there is much to discover.

Pierce, a blond haired gladiator, hasn't seen much in his life other than trees and poverty. He applied for a part-time job as a handyman and earned just enough to leave that damned Hooverville he called home. He is joined by Theodore, more commonly known as "Twitch", an Arbalist with a dark complexion and a smooth temper. The two are an unbreakable pair, but are known to get themselves in loads of trouble.

Pierce's smile grew wide. "We're finally here Twitch! Our life is really taking a turn for the better!"

Twitch gives a small grin. "I guess you can say that. The only thing we've really done so far is decrease our chances of survival."

Pierce chuckles. "So far. We're not dying anytime soon."

The two smile at each other, then begin to laugh hysterically as they make their way farther into the city.

* * *

"Look, I understand your enthusiasm, but I really don't recommend going into the labyrinth with just the two of you."

Twitch looks a bit amused, but Pierce was anything but. "Me and Twitch are the greatest of combinations," Pierce spits, "We can do it."

The Guildmaster scratches his chin. "Well, I wouldn't recommend going in there with less than five," He smiles and continues. "Come back here with three more members, and then I'll register you as a guild."

The Arbalist nods his head. "Thank you. We'll be back sometime later." Pierce mumbles to himself, but the two take their leave. Once outside, Twitch sighs.

"How is this going to work? We've just arrived and we've already been told to make friends; at least three." Pierce sports.

"Whatever. It shouldn't really be that hard, right? A lot of adventurers are said to come here. We should find a few who aren't already in a guild," Twitch brightens up. "I'm getting pretty excited."

Pierce's expression also lights up. "I guess you're right. Let's look for lonely people."

They decide to go to the nearby store, Napier's Firm, to look for anyone interested. Or rather, they would pull in some random loner and see if they were interested in them. After pulling in a few adventurers who were taken and those who weren't adventurers at all, Pierce became discouraged.

"This isn't working. We should have just demanded he let us go in." Pierce grunts.

"We aren't allowed to go in without a Guild Card. The Guildmaster doesn't seem like he'll give us one unless we arrive with five people."

"Man, we're not getting anywhere…" He deflates. "And I'm getting hungry again."

"Already? We ate an hour ago," Twitch sighs, irritated. "Let's just have a bite at a nearby restaurant," Twitch scans the area and locates a bar that a few people are drinking in. "That Bistro over there seems pretty nice. We might get lucky and find a new member too."

Pierce's expression doesn't change. "Whatever you say."

As they begin to make their way over to the Bistro, a young woman with a pink robe and a knife walks up to them. "I overheard you looking for members for your guild. I wouldn't mind forming a guild with you for the time being."

Pierce was amazed. Just a second ago he was frantically asking people to form a guild with him, and right now a young woman with a knife arrives on a silver platter asking for a spot on his team.

Twitch didn't know what to say. Pierce begins to bounce. "Alrighty then! I'm not quite sure why, but I think we can trust you for now." Pierce grins like crazy, and just like that, they have found a new member. No more than one exchange has been spoken.

Twitch quietly whispers to Pierce. "I'm surprised you didn't jump the gun and ask her hand in marriage."

Pierce chuckles. "That would have ruined our chances of even forming a team. I need to be smart here."

Twitch gives him a skeptical stare and turns back to the young woman. "Uh, hi. My name is Twitch, and this is… uh…" He motions to Pierce. "Pierce. If we're forming a guild with you, at least for now, we need to know your name."

She gives a rather cocky smile and answers. "My name is Rina Torume and I am a ninja. I look forward to working with you two, for now anyway."

Twitch scratches the back of his head. "Alright then," Twitch begins to feel uneasy in the silence and the suddenness of the situation, especially since the two are probably much younger than him. "Um, I guess that's one, now we need two more," He pauses. "Let's just go to the Bistro."

* * *

"So, Rina, where are you from?" Pierce is getting excited. What kind of team will he have by the end of the day? He also realized that he was building what could possibly become a model of a family to him. He knew he had to learn about his new friends. Rina was the first.

"That's your first question?"

Pierce blinks. This girl is probably younger than him, he allowed her into his guild with no question and now she decides that being rude is a good idea?

"If we're going to form a guild, the most I can do is learn who you are."

"Well, is it important for you to know?"

Twitch reappears with drinks. They didn't want to use too much money, so the only one getting any alcohol was Twitch. Pierce was really the only one getting any food.

"Hmm. Seems you two are getting along." Twitch muses. "What did Pierce say to you?"

"Nothing, really. Where are you from?"

Twitch quickly looks away. Pierce grunts. "We're from the Rad City for Attractive People."

Twitched stares at him in awe, then proceeds to chuckle. "Yeah, that."

Rina urges him. "I'm being serious."

Pierce gives her a stern expression. "Well, is it important for you to know?"

Watching the exchange, Twitch begins the need to leave somewhere. Anywhere. "Um excuse me…" He begins to stand up, but is stomped in the foot by Pierce.

"Hey, don't leave; we're making a new friend. Isn't that right, Rina?"

Twitch continues to ignore him, until he finds his other foot had been stomped as well.

"I'm not sitting here to learn about one guild mate. Don't leave." Rina says without any facial expression.

Twitch sits back down in defeat. "Okay, you win. What are your abilities, Rina?"

Rina thinks for a moment. "I have the ability to direct shadows. Not just mine."

Pierce sits up straight. "Is that useful, in any way?"

"I can bind living things to their shadows, leaving them incapable of movement. I can also turn my shadow into an illusion of myself."

Impressed, Pierce goes on with his examination. "Any reason you decided to join us?"

"You were complaining of a deficiency of guild members. I thought that maybe I could help you and myself." Her face still isn't friendly.

"Fair enough," Pierce says, "Do you have any good ideas for recruitment? A good dossier wouldn't be too bad."

Without hesitation Rina replies, "No."

Twitch chuckles. "Oh well, we'll just have to keep searching blindly." With this statement, he detects the barmaid approaching from the corner of his eye.

"Welcomings! You three are a new guild making preperationings for a foraying in the labyrinth, no?" She says cheerfully. She wore a questionable gown and had long pink hair, her ever-present grin creeping up on the three.

"That's true, but we're short of two members. The Guildmaster won't let us go in without five. That dude worries too much." Pierce says.

"He has reason to. The casualty countings in the labyrinth are immeasurable. Lucky for you rookies, I have a young woman looking for a job. I will go and get." She hurries off.

"That seems good. We're getting another one. What do you two think?" Twitch asks.

"I hope she's well-behaved." From Rina.

"I hope she's attractive." From Pierce.

"Hmm." From Twitch.

They waited for a bit, the silence from the table unnoticed by the drunkards and the laughter from the other people in the bar; Puncheons, sometimes pipes, being emptied by the masses and bold moves and claims by the ones who have had a tad too much. They would occasionally share glances, and they would awkwardly look a different direction immediately after. Pierce, looking past Rina's head, spots the barmaid grab the arm of a random drinking maiden.

Pierce whispers, "That can't be who she…"

The barmaid approaches the trio with the young woman's forearm in her hand.

"I have returned, all! This cute little thing is the young woman I was talking to you about!"

The young woman doesn't look drunk at all, but rather bored, ale in hand and eyes drifting elsewhere. Twitch, for the umpteenth time that day, is clueless as to how to react.

"Well? Will you be doing the introducing?" The barmaid suggests.

Pierce coughed. There was nothing left in the glass cups, meaning that they were supposed to have left already. Once again, a potential recruit comes unexpectantly. He sputters, "Hello, I'm Pierce, the interim Guild leader," he says with a mouthed who pronounced that from Twitch, "you're name is..?"

The young woman stared. She had impressively tidy blond hair, an even more impressive white dress, along with a platinum breastplate and a steel arm. "My name is Dorian DuPleiss. I am an important, er, princess." She slurred. She didn't say anything else.

Rina blinked. "Okay, well, if you're a princess, where are you from?"

Dorian suddenly straightened up and no longer looked lifeless. She scowled. "You're willing to ask such a personal question to a princess?"

Rina blinked once again. "I'm sorry, but isn't a princess supposed to represent her country?"

"Well, yes."

"Will it hurt to ask?" Pierce says.

Dorian suddenly flushes. "Um, well…. I'm from that important castle…" The trio stared, Dorian losing their respect almost entirely. "You know."

This isn't good. Pierce suddenly realizes what he's gotten himself into. He's recruited a feisty ninja and a fake princess into his new guild. Was this going to be his new family?

"I will leave you damn kids to your meeting of each other. My name is Missy, by the way. You can always find me and other adventurers drinking here. Maybe you will be learning of new things from the other adventurers, some will even ask you for favors!" The barmaid, now known as Missy, says.

"Thank you," Twitch says, alone. "We'll visit often."

Missy leaves the four at their table, and Rina scoots over to allow Dorian to sit. After the three introduce themselves to Dorian, the silence takes over, and once again, the noise of the wasted and the stench of the drinking lingers over. Twitch speaks up.

"Let's go bonding outside."

* * *

Pierce walked with his hands behind his head and his red eyes to the sky. They had walked quite a distance now and were approaching the harbor again. Inver Port looked pretty nice at dusk, and Pierce could agree. They only needed one more member, and Pierce was very positive that they would find a last member.

"Nice night, isn't it?" Twitch says.

"Yeah, we didn't get many of these back home." Pierce answers.

"The 'Rad City for Attractive People' sounds like a place with glorious nights." Rina says.

The four walk along the harbor for another ten minutes. They didn't have anywhere to go, so they were really just killing time.

"Where are we going?" Dorian asks.

Twitch scratched his head, his fingers running through his messy afro. "Well, we were hoping to get lucky again and find another member, but it doesn't seem like we will. We could head to the inn."

"A final member for your guild, huh?"

The group turn their heads to find a middle aged man with an eye patch and long red hair sitting on the dock beside a crate.

"I didn't know kids were going on suicide missions these days. I must just be getting old," The man stood up and walked over to the group. He was smirking. "Do you kids mind hiring a thirty-eight year old man to your guild?"

"I don't see why not." Twitch grinned.

"Well, there we have it; I am now a member of your guild. What is the name of your guild?"

Pierce and Twitch looked at each other. They never thought of that. "We never thought of one." Pierce explains.

The man's smile does not disappear. "Not a problem," He turns his head to the others. "I see you have two lovely lasse- wait," He spots Dorian standing behind Rina, shaking. "Ven? You actually managed to get yourself in a guild?" Dorian nods, still shaking. "Haha, seems like we'll be colleagues, at least for now, anyway."

Rina raised an eyebrow. "You two know each other?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. Ven would walk past my house and buy Garbanzo Beans from me at least three times a week, sometimes three times a day. It's kind of funny actually, she isn't one for manners, and I think I pissed her off on our first meeting, but she just kept coming." The man explains.

"You've been calling her Ven, is there any reason for that?" Pierce asks.

"Why? Is there a problem?"

"Her name is Dorian, you sure you two know each other?"

"Dorian? I've never heard that name. I'm positive this is Ven. She's wearing the same clothes, she's got the same face, hair. No doubt, this is Ven."

"Has she ever introduced herself to you?"

The man brought a finger to his chin. "No actually, I just figured her name was Ven, after all, that's what her 'friends' called her. Isn't that right? _Dorian?_" He leans over towards Dorian.

She straightens her dress up a bit, but does not stop shaking. "Yeah."

Twitch stepped in front of Dorian. "I think that's eno-"

The man cut him off. "Hey, what happened to your old friends? I haven't seen you hanging out with them ever since you got that steel arm."

"I, um… I uh," Dorian didn't know what to say.

The man chuckled to himself. "I'll just ask you later. Mind telling me your names, then?"

Twitch felt uneasy about this man, but he could tell that he was friendly by heart. "My name is Theodore, you can just call me Twitch if you want. That there is Pierce, the one next to him is Rina. We're all just getting to know each other here, so let's not die."

The man nods his head. He hasn't let go of his smile. "My name is Kentigern Harvey. You can just call me Harvey. Let's hope to have a long run in the labyrinth." He shows his hand, and Twitch takes it to shake.

* * *

So, we have recruited all 5 members of the guild. Although it may not look like it, Harvey will be the prominent character. We got a lot of new characters coming in next time, so don't expect me to update again real quickly. Anyone excited for the localization of Etrian Odyssey IV on February? I'm also posting small bios of every one of my important characters each chapter. Next up is Twitch.


	2. Chapter 2: Allies

Name: Theodore "Twitch" Witt

Class: Arbalist

Hair: Black

Eyes: Black

Hometown: Pierce's "Rad City for Attractive People"

Age: 23

Charm Point: Afro

A coolheaded young man who refuses to reveal his life before meeting Pierce. He earned the name "Twitch" due to his ability to shoot arrows at a fast rate with ease. Twitch's cool attitude makes him a lady's man, but every true relationship he has become a part of has ended in betrayal. He is too optimistic for his own good.

He enjoys harmonizing, but mourns over the fact that there is no one to harmonize with. Pierce suspects that there is a hidden meaning behind this, but has dismissed the idea of pushing his best friend's personal values.

* * *

The five were passing the time in Aman's Inn. It wasn't too late, and nobody was tired. Twitch was shooting empty glass bottles off of a branch outside, earning praise from those who happened to walk by. Rina was reading a book in one of the rooms that they had booked. Dorian was out and about. Harvey and Pierce were sitting alone at a dinner table.

"Not many adventurers here aside from us, huh Pierce?"

"Yeah. This place is pretty nice; I'm surprised there aren't too many people staying here," Pierce replies. He spots the young innkeeper boy walk by the dinner table. "Hey, could you get me a chowder? Any kind will do. No string beans, please." Pierce wasn't sure if chowder really had string beans to begin with.

"Sure thing, boss!"

"Shit, man. That's going to be your third helping of food tonight." Harvey says.

The boy prepares to turn around, until someone takes the seat across from Pierce.

"I'll just be having whatever he's getting."

The boy is surprised by the newcomer, but takes the order anyway. "Of course!"

Pierce stares across at the newcomer. It's a girl, not too tall, and pretty skinny. She has short red hair with a single braided tail and blue eyes. Her face bandage stands out among everything else she has on her. He decided against making conversation.

"How far have you gone in?"

The girl smirks and stares him down. She was expecting an answer.

"Well, actually, we're going in for our first foray tomorrow." Pierce says.

"Seems like we're on the same page, then. Me and my squad went in for the first time at noon a while ago. It's not as dangerous as others make it seem to be. You just have to be cautious and skilled."

"I'll keep that in mind. How was the Labyrinth? What were you able to find there?"

"Fish, fruits, and tigers; all of them had large-ass teeth. We weren't allowed to go too far in," She says. "We'll go on ahead tomorrow now that we've finished our first quest."

"Quest?"

"Yeah, didn't you go to the Senatus yet?"

Harvey speaks up. "We registered our guild about an hour ago. The Guildmaster gave us our guild card and told us to report there, but it's getting late, so we'll do that tomorrow. What kind of materials did you salvage?"

"Not much, mostly just dead monster body parts. We did find a few flowers, branches and such. Our farmer takes care of those things. Here's a fruit we found." The girl reaches into her bag and pulls out a plain fruit.

Harvey studies it. "An Anra fruit. I can't say I've never seen that before."

"Well, we also found this." She takes out a jar of fluid from her bag.

"Nectar; brings people back when they're out cold. A lot is required for it to actually take effect though." Harvey seems to know a lot about the Labyrinth.

She nods and takes a good look at the two. "Where are your other members?

Pierce answers. "One is outside shooting rounds. Another one is upstairs reading. I'm not sure where the last one is. We all woke up this morning having never seen each other's faces." As Pierce says this, Twitch walks in speaking with an even skinnier girl with brown hair, green eyes and a hood. She wore large trousers not unlike Twitch, and was carrying a humongous crossbow, also not unlike Twitch. Her trousers were held up by thick, leather suspenders. She wore a tight, brown top that ended just below her bosom. Even so, she was still ridiculously flat, which Pierce could agree on.

"You're back Twitch, I see you're making friends." Harvey says.

"This girl's just as good a shot as I am. Hey, boy," The innkeeper boy sets the chowders down on the table. "Get me a Merlot."

"Got it, boss!" The boy hurries into the kitchen.

"Apparently I'm not the only one making friends. Who's this?" Twitch says.

Pierce wipes his eye and yawns. "I haven't actually caught your name yet."

The red haired girl smiles. "The name's Fei, a Monk from the Valley Near the River. Glad to meet you all. I'm the leader of the Saturos Guild."

Pierce smushes his fist into his hand. "I'm Pierce. This is Harvey, and that's Twitch. Hey," Pierce eyes Twitch. "What's your name?" He motions towards the girl next to Twitch.

"The name's Sprit," The brunette speaks with a heavy Oceania accent. "I'm the Arbalist for the Saturos Guild. It's a pleasure."

"Well, seems like we're making allies," Fei exclaims. "Where are the others?"

Sprit sets her crossbow on the floor and takes the seat next to Fei. "Zinovia's gettin' some shuteye upstairs. Carrick's out bein' a jackass. Not sure where Al might be."

"Do you know when the guys are coming back?"

"No, Al just disappeared. Carrick said he was going out for a walk."

"Damn those two, they better be back within the next hour."

Twitch takes the seat next to Pierce and wipes his goggles with his handkerchief. He's happy. He and Pierce were making friends aside from those within the guild. "Hey Harvey, did Dorian tell you where she was going?"

"No, I have a few questions for her. I hope she actually comes back."

As if on cue, Dorian walks through the doorway. "Hey guys. Are you meeting new people?" She yawns after she says this.

"I suppose so," Pierce says. "Come take a seat."

Dorian sits next to Sprit and is introduced to the other two at the table.

"So, Dorian… that's quite a wardrobe there." Fei comments.

"Yeah, I need to look presentable, after all."

"You don't need to stand out above everyone else by wearing that, you know. You're an adventurer, not a celebrity. That tiara of yours is also kind of useless." Sprit points out.

Dorian's eyes grow intense. "I'm not the one wearing loose pants and half a shirt."

Sprit put her hands up. "I'm just sayin'."

Fei looked up from her chowder. Her expression became stern. "Don't be like that, Sprit."

"She had a point though," Twitch says. "Dorian, even if she is a princess, can just wear traveler's clothes." Twitch hesitates when he says 'princess'.

Dorian grunts and looks away. "We're all friends here, don't become hostile." Harvey says.

Pierce scratches the back of his head. "I'm gonna go check on Rina to see if she's still reading that book. Excuse me." Pierce stands up and exits the room.

"Damn it, where are those two bastards? I'll go look for them myself," Fei snaps. "Sorry, I'll have to go for now. See you tomorrow morning." Fei takes one last large portion of her chowder and eats it. Then she places 30en on the table and exits the room.

Twitch takes a sip from his Merlot. "Hey Sprit, where did you learn how to use that thing?"

"Oh," Sprit pats her crossbow. "You mean this?" Twitch nods his head. "I trained to be a Labyrinth guard a few years ago and learned a few things. Had to lie about my age, of course. I came to really like using this thing. Eventually, just a few months ago, they kicked me out of training due to detrimental activity. Their own damn fault, if you ask me. Of course, it was also because they found out that I had been lying about my age," Sprit's voice trails off. "Three years and my chest is still flat."

Twitch chuckles. "Three years and what?"

Sprit straightens up and turns red. "Oh, nothing."

"Well, how old are you now?"

"I'm sixteen."

Twitch leans back in surprise. "You began training when you were thirteen? Wasn't everyone bigger than you?"

"Haha, yeah. Not just that, but it was mostly just men. The women I saw were all adventurers," Sprit sighs. "Whatever, I'm glad they kicked me out now. I've got a team of my own, and I'm making friends. No friends to make in that damn training squad I was on."

Dorian looks up. "You've got an accent. Where are you from?"

"A small town called Winterdune. Funny thing is, it was always cold, but the chances of snow there were the same as the chances of having two yolks in an egg."

The two Arbalists are then tightly engaged in conversation. Harvey excuses himself and retires for the day, leaving with an "Oh, Dorian? I have a few things to ask of you." Causing Dorian to follow him out the room.

* * *

Upstairs, Rina's room is shut and locked. Pierce doesn't want to go back down without anything to say, so he goes into his own room and sits down on his bed. A good time to reflect on the day's events. Not only did he finally arrive after a 4 day cruise, he also made a few friends. Tomorrow's going to be a big day, possibly even the last one in his life. Of course, there is nothing to worry about; after all, Pierce is a powerful force. Pierce chuckles at the thought. People often told him that he had a big head, especially _her_, but in truth, he was just being confident. After all, there's no good in believing that he couldn't achieve the things that he wants. Suddenly, he heard Fei's voice outside his door. She sounded pretty pissed, but since the door was closed, it wouldn't hurt to try and eavesdrop, was it?

"Sorry Fei, this guy at the Bistro was playing Poker for money! I thought I could take the chance." A man. He sound a bit mature, but he had a sheepish tone to his voice.

"When I found you, you had 10en in your hand, and that was all you had in your possession." This from Fei.

"Well, this world is all about survival of the fittest right? That guy didn't look good at all." The man again.

"Tell me, does Sprit look like someone who's good at fighting?"

"No."

"Is she?"

"Well, yeah."

"See, all you accomplished was making me walk around in the dark to find out you lost money."

"That's why you're the leader," His voice trails off. "And not me…"

"Carrick, you're a dumbass."

The man, now known as "Carrick", sighs.

"How about you Al? Anything to say? You haven't said anything since I picked you up."

"No, ma'am." Al's voice is a bit high pitched.

"Calling me ma'am? I thought you said you were twenty years old."

"Yes I did."

"Well, what were you doing?" Fei's voice softens, but not by much.

"I was trading in the material we got. The lady at the Firm also gave me this."

Fei pauses for a moment, probably examining Al's item. "An Ariadne Thread. These are important. You're off the hook, Al."

"Yes, thank you." Al's voice sounds happy.

"Carrick…" Fei's voice sounds tense.

"Yes, Fei?" A terrified voice.

"Let's talk."

"Aww."

Silence. From the conversation, Pierce could guess that Carrick is a bonehead who didn't take things for granted. Al is a responsible and well behaved kid. Somehow, someone older than him had a high pitched voice. Pierce shrugs and lies down on his bed.

* * *

Harvey is the last one to sleep, and the first one to get up. He has never been in the Labyrinth before. Of course, death is a high possibility, and his guild mates are just kids! They all seemed capable. Pierce's muscles hopefully aren't just for show. Twitch was a pretty good shot yesterday. Rina was mature, so she probably knows what she's doing. Dorian was his main worry, however. He'd never seen Dorian carry a weapon before, even with all of that impressive armor she had on. Harvey puts on his vest and ammo belt, then his scabbard and slacks. Lastly, he takes his cutlass and slipped it into his scabbard. He finally goes to wake up everyone else.

"We'll have breakfast here, and we'll go down later." Harvey says.

"Well, we might as well go with you then." Fei appears from the doorway, wrapping tape around her hands and her orange coat slung over her shoulder. A rather large man appears behind her with a goofy grin on his face. He has a brown afro, smaller than Twitch's, and was wearing his breastplate and greaves. His armor seemed to be incomplete.

"Nice to meet you folks. My name's Carrick. Carrick Kavanagh." The man puts his hand out to Harvey, who shakes it. The five introduce themselves the way they usually do. "We've gotten a head start over you, so we'll be doing most of the discovering.

Pierce doesn't take this lightly. "We'll catch up to you eventually; you should be surprised if we don't get to the second stratum before you."

Carrick smirks. "We're not a guild to overlook, Pierce."

Fei kicks his calf, causing Carrick to fall down in pain. "These are our allies, don't belittle them," She says. "Also, you're gonna need better greaves if I hurt you that much."

Carrick doesn't say anything. Another young man walks into the scene. He has brown hair and green eyes. He wears a red shirt and a long sleeved blue shirt underneath. His head sports a huge blue hat.

"Morning, Al." Fei says.

Al yawns. "Who are these?" His eyes focus on Harvey.

Breakfast is slow, but there is much conversation. Everyone seems excited to finally get going. They are about to get going, a small girl came into the room and took a large glass of orange juice. She had long, straight, brown hair and yellow eyes. She wore a white beret along with a long white trench coat. She was half the size of Harvey.

"Good morning. Sorry I woke up late." She has no emotion in her high voice.

"Who's this?" Dorian asks.

"This is Zinovia," Sprit says. "She's cute, isn't she? She's Delta Renzimius's daughter. Delta herself actually forced us to let her in, but we don't mind. Can't you believe it? This is Delta's daughter." Sprit pats her hat.

"Never heard of her." Pierce quickly says.

Sprit's face shows great shock, "Hey guys, this guy doesn't know who Delta Renzimius is!" She proceeds to laugh.

"You didn't know who she was either until she appeared with her daughter." Al says.

"Yeah, I don't think I did either, for that matter." Fei says after taking a swig of milk.

Sprit's face becomes red, and she takes a step back.

"I know who she is," Harvey says. "You kids probably haven't because she was only famous for a year or so. She's around my age now; when I was around your age, she set half of the first stratum on fire. It was pretty crazy, my folks back at Plainloch made a big deal out of it because our mayor's son was there at the time. Of course, the mayor's son died later in the third stratum." Harvey lets out a hearty laugh.

"Dude was strong enough to even make the third stratum and still died? I'm getting pretty excited!" Pierce exclaims. "Let's show them what for!" Pierce runs out the door wearing just his shorts and tank.

Rina doesn't watch him go. "He'll come back. I'm gonna go get ready, nice to meet you, Fei, Carrick, Al, Sprit, Zinovia." Rina goes back to her quarters.

Harvey and Twitch settled down. "We'll wait." Twitch says.

"Carrick, go get the rest of your armor, we're going to leave as well," Fei commands. Harvey could spot Pierce sneaking behind the Saturos guild and up the stairs. "Zinovia, go eat breakfast. Al, go with Sprit to Napier's Firm and stock up on Medicas." The Saturos Guild do what they are told, leaving Fei alone with Harvey and Twitch. She pays them no mind, however.

"Have you ever been inside before?" Twitch asks Harvey.

"Not once," Harvey answers. He chuckles. "It's a shame I have to bring four kids with me."

Twitch smiles. "I'm twenty-three years old, not as much of a kid as you think I am. Besides, you're new to this yourself, aren't you?"

"Yeah, but you've got a future ahead of you. Won't do you any good if you die."

"I would worry about myself if I were you."

"And why is that?"

"Well, for one thing, you've got wrinkles coming on, and you seem to lack depth perception." Twitch points at his eye patch.

"Hahaha, you got me there," Harvey says. "You know, The Saturos Guild is full of teenagers also. Is risking your life a trend now?" This was directed at Fei.

"You're risking your life every time you step outside of your house. People live to die, and you've got to realize that. I thought someone you're age might have gotten that into his head already," Fei turns her head to him. "I guess not."

Harvey opens his mouth for a second, and decides against arguing. They sit in silence for a moment until Carrick and Rina walk into the room.

"Dorian? Do you have a weapon?" Rina asks.

"Of course I do! I just have to go get it." Dorian rushes into her quarters.

Zinovia appears as well. "I'm finished."

"Alright then, Carrick, let's go." The three leave the inn, and our heroes are alone.

"Boy, that Fei girl really has that leadership role covered, huh?" Twitch says.

"Yeah," Rina says. "I don't expect any different from you, Harvey."

"I guess I'm the leader?" Harvey says. It was more of a question than a statement.

Dorian walks into the room with a small sword, and then Pierce appears behind her with a much bigger sword.

Harvey stands up. "Alright, are we all ready to go to the Senatus?"

Twitch and Rina nod their heads, and the group goes on their way to the Senatus.

* * *

"You're outsiders aren't you? Let me guess, you were drawn here by the rumors of the Labyrinth." An old woman greets them as they enter. Harvey merely nods his head.

"Then you'd best remember this; you stand in an assembly hall of the Senatus, Armoroad's government. I am she who wields the Senatus' authority to manage explorers such as yourselves. This is where so-called explorers' skills are tested to sort the true warriors from the cowards." Harvey nods again. "If you want to be recognized as true Armoroad explorers, accept the mission I issue you now." She hands Harvey a professional looking slip of paper. According to the sheet, they are to draw their own map of the Labyrinth's first floor.

"The guard at the labyrinth should get you started. Don't waste too much time!" She gives them a warm smile.

"I don't think any of us have drawn a map before." Harvey explains.

"Oh, of course, it slipped my mind. Here, it's a blank map I give to explorers. Use it well," The old woman hands Harvey a handbook filled with grids and icons. It appears to be very simple. "If you're as talented as you'd have me believe, there'll be many more opportunities to come here. Just don't get lost in the assembly hall on the way here! What are your names?"

"My name is Har-"

"No, no. That isn't important to me yet. Give me your guild's name."

Harvey looked back at his guild mates. They were expecting him to answer. "Eridani."

"Eridani… Strange name, but has a sort of ring to it. I'll be expecting more from you, Eridani."

"But of course." Harvey nods and leaves the room. The name and title "Senator Flowdia" is shown over the doorway.

"You handled that well." Twitch comments.

"Of course, she's professional, unlike most of the new people I've met these past few days." Harvey answers.

A guard escorts them out of the Senatus, and the guild makes its way to the Labyrinth and finally begin their adventure.

* * *

I finished this quicker than I thought I would. Of course, the lack of school really helped me out, but my mind was just full of ideas. I think I need to make the characters' personalities stand out a bit more. They all seem a bit plain. Next chapter I'll try and make them more colorful, and with all the stress in the labyrinth, it should help me out a lot. Expect to see a lot of Saturos in the future. Next bio is Rina's.


	3. Chapter 3: First Floor, Draw us a map

Name: Rina Torume

Class: Ninja

Hair: Brown

Eyes: Green

Hometown: "Is it important for you to know?"

Age: 16

Charm Point: Kitsune Mask

Serious for her age, Rina was raised to become a gymnast. While out on a trip with her mother, her father and her grandparents were attacked and, ultimately, eliminated. She travelled to Armoroad on her mother's behalf, who died of sickness two years later. Now at the age of sixteen, she decided to join a guild and ultimately became a member of the Eridani Guild.

She is serious, standoffish, and somewhat impetuous, but she will often show signs of immaturity. She has a great love for citrus fruits.

* * *

"Alright, which one of you wants to draw the map?" Harvey expects one of his guild-mates to raise a hand or say "yes", but gets nothing. "Fine, I'll do it myself."

"Making the old man do it?" The guard laughs quietly to himself, and then darkens. "Man, I wish I was in your position. Guard work gets boring and lonely real quickly," he sighs. "Look, map this floor except for this area behind me, and report back to me, then the Senatus. Once you do that, I'll let you go on ahead."

"Understood, we'll be back shortly." Harvey says.

"Or not, depends on if your veins still pulse before you're back.""

Harvey doesn't respond to this, and makes his way farther into the Labyrinth. The four behind him follow suit like geese. The Labyrinth was just as pretty inside as it was outside. The rich foliage and clear, running water made it look like they were out for a nature stroll, but numbers don't lie, and Harvey understands the danger in the Labyrinth if the death toll was that high. Wait a second. "Hey, do you hear that?" Harvey stops in his tracks, surprising his companions.

Pierce, surprised, takes a step forward. "I don't hear anything Harvey, are you sure?"

Harvey takes out his cutlass and spots a few fanged fish appear. Harvey grunts. "That's it? Shouldn't be too hard, I'll sit this one out, see what you can do." Harvey yawns and backs up. The fight is rather uneventful. Twitch shoots a few arrows straight between the eyes of one. Rina disables another one, which Pierce proceeds to rip apart. Impressive, he must say, these kids know what they're doing. There's one remaining one, and he tells the three to let Dorian handle it. "You know the drill. Show us what you got." Harvey motions her forward.

"Alright then, uh…" Dorian takes a step forward, causing the fanged fish to back up a bit. After a minute without action, the fanged fish strikes, causing Dorian to put her steel arm up in defense. The fanged fish is whacked in the face by the force, but Dorian falters and hits the grass.

"Don't keep us waiting! Go forward and strike!" Harvey shouts. Harvey understands now. She isn't afraid; she just doesn't know what to do.

Dorian nods and stands up. She holds her sword with both hands and charges. It looks good; she brings her sword over her head and swings it down with authority. Harvey pumps a fist. "That's the way you do it!" The fish bounces off the ground and goes flying over a bush, and then a sharp roar is heard.

"What was that!?" Twitch says. Dorian looks relieved for a second, and then a Great Lynx soars above her head and bellows a ferocious roar. Harvey immediately reacts to the danger.

"Get ready, everyone! This is a real challenge for you guys!" Harvey braces himself and sidesteps over to the Great Lynx. "Let's see how we work as a team!"

Twitch backpedals really far back and readies an arrow. Rina immediately takes full speed, and Pierce attempts to take her back. Harvey waits for his allies or the opposition to make a move. Suddenly, an arrow grazes past the Lynx's sides, causing it to leap back in shock. Harvey takes the opportunity to slash at its head. A clean hit, and Harvey jumps back to let the other two get to work. Rina lunges forward and spirals away from a swipe from the Lynx's paw. Rina probably did something there, because the Lynx stepped back and stumbled on its feet.

"This is it!" Pierce's grin widens as he dashes forward. Dorian raises her sword and points it at Pierce. Suddenly, Pierce feels a tremendous power on his shoulders and swings his sword straight through the Great Lynx. Victorious, his feet hit the floor and he strikes a triumphant pose.

However, the Yggdrassil Labyrinth doesn't cancel out the fact that friction exists, and he trips over the Great Lynx's carcass. Rina lurches forward and suppresses a laugh. Twitch just lets it out. In fact, everyone was laughing save for Harvey, who was too busy being amazed by what Dorian had just done. He jogs over to Dorian.

"Where did you learn that?"

Dorian shakes her head. "Wh-what?"

"What you just did. You amplified Pierce's attacking force. It was tremendous!'

"What? I've known how to do that for as long as I can remember. I didn't think it was all that special."

"Attack Order, it enhances the attack party of a row of allies. There's a defensive and an ailment protection version of that too, you know," Harvey smirks. "That was an insinuation."

"What?"

"I said, that was an insinuation for what to learn in the future."

"I don't know what insinuation means."

Harvey inserts his cutlass into his scabbard and chuckles. "Insinuation means 'hint'."

"How was I supposed to know?" Dorian asks.

Harvey looks on to the path ahead and palms the top of her head. "Read books."

* * *

The sun is directly over their heads, and Harvey has a good portion of the map completed. "I think this is good, fellas, let's head on back and tell the guard." On the way back, Rina hears a faint cry behind the brush. Harvey calls for a quick gathering of materials, so Rina decides it's a good idea to investigate the sound. As she walks, the sound grows louder, and eventually the flora clears to unveil an ensnared baby platypus. Rina scans the area before deciding that it was safe to free the platypus. She kneels next to the baby platypus and takes out her knife, cutting through the ropes (or vines? She couldn't tell). She helps the platypus out of the trap and is about to go on her way, but spots two bigger platypus emerge from behind a nearby try. She freezes, hoping not to alarm the newcomers. The platypuses walk over to the baby and escort it away from Rina. Rina is relieved at first, but then Pierce appears from behind the brush and accidentally kicks the baby.

"Good going, idiot."

Rina puts her hand on her knife and braces herself. Pierce, confused and surprised, struggles to get himself ready. The largest platypus spins and throws itself at Pierce. Pierce, being too busy trying to take out his sword, is hit in the face by the bill. Pierce is left rolling around on the floor with his hands to his face. Rina moves at lightning speed and strikes the middle sized platypus. Startled, the large platypus lunges at Rina. Rina moves out of the way when suddenly the platypus bolts from its landing spot and hits Rina's waist with its tail. Rina was rather unfazed by this, bringing her knife down on the assailant. Defeated, Rina looks at the carnage. The baby is nowhere to be found. Rina sighs.

"Pierce, are you all right?" Rina walks over and looks down on him. Pierce rolls over and sits up. He had gotten a huge bruise on cheek. "Ouch, let's get you over to Harvey." Rina offered her hand to help him on his feet, when, unexpectedly, she feels a sharp pain in her hip, where the platypus's tail hit her. Even more unexpectedly, the pain becomes overwhelming and Rina topples over.

"Whoa, what happened? You okay?" Pierce pores over Rina.

"Help me."

"Oh, of course. I am going to help you," Pierce hesitates. "What do I do?"

Rina couldn't believe how stupid this boy was. "Pick me up and show what could become my corpse to the others." She grunted in pain after this.

"All right. Don't you worry, Rina. I have this under control. I am the greatest after all." Pierce holds Rina in his arms and rushes through the brush. A few branches hit Rina and Pierce in the face on the way there, hurting Pierce much more than it hurt Rina, but Pierce is too busy worrying about what Rina would do to him after she got better. When they came back to where they were before, they find Harvey pacing back and forth in a panic, Twitch organizing flowers, and Dorian watching Harvey. Harvey sees Rina's state and rushes over.

"What the hell happened?" Harvey takes out his bag.

"Rina walked away, so I went to follow her, and then we got attacked. Not sure what happened to her though. She just fell over when I sat up." Pierce answers.

"What did you get attacked by?"

"Platypuses. I accidentally kicked one of them, then Rina called me an idiot, which was hurtful, mind you, and then the platypus went 'HHEHHEEEE'. And then this happened." Pierce quickly explains.

"Platypuses? You probably got poisoned, Rina. Here, have some of this." Harvey acquires a jar of fluid from the bag.

"What's that?" Pierce asks.

"Theriaca B, status medicine. It can heal any sort of ailment as long as the person's alive," Harvey pauses. "She's not dead is she?"

"Of course not. If she was, I wouldn't have shown my face."

"Well then, bring her here."

Pierce places Rina gently on the floor. Harvey stoops down next to her.

"She's bleeding over here, is this where I want to put it?"

Pierce scratches his head. "How should I know?"

Harvey's rage rises. "Is this where she got hit?"

"Yes."

"Well, then," Harvey pours some over the wound. Rina isn't quite sure if that was the correct way to do it, and she begins to feel a lot of pain after the liquid hits. "I don't want either of you doing anything like that again. The Labyrinth is a dangerous place, and separating from the rest is the exact opposite of what I want. That goes for the both of you too," Harvey looks back at Twitch and Dorian. "I'm no expert, but I think you're supposed to drink it too. The pain won't suppress unless you let that wound heal on its own, but the poison should be gone." He hands Rina the medicine to drink, which she does. It doesn't taste all too bad, Rina enjoys sour tastes.

"All right," Harvey stands up. "Shall we get going?" The other three nod at his question.

"Who's going to hold Rina on the way, back? Are you gonna do it, Harvey?" Pierce asks.

"I'm sorry, were you told to draw a map?"

Pierce turns to Twitch. "You're not holding a giant crossbow."

He turns his head to Dorian. "If it weren't for you, she probably wouldn't have gotten hurt to begin with."

Pierce looks back down to Rina. She appears to have fallen asleep. He sighs as he picks her up, and they trek back down to the entrance using the shortcut they had previously found, and were back to the guard in the blink of an eye. The guard scans the guild and eventually spot Rina in Pierce's arms. "A casualty I see, well, you still made it past. Four remaining members isn't a good number for the next few floors."

"No, she's still alive. A bit roughed up, but still breathing." Pierce explains, shrugging.

"Okay then, that's cool too, I suggest you go back to town and get that wound closed correctly," He motions towards the other three. "Do you have a map for me?"

Harvey hands over the map he made. "Is this what you were looking for?"

The guard grabs the map and examines it, studying each detail. "Looks pretty good to me, you can go on ahead, but you look pretty tired. It's been a good 4 hours since I last saw you," He yawns, hands back the map, and sits on the floor. "Don't worry about me; I'll just be here, doing boring old guard work." He seems like a depressed man.

"Of course." Harvey turns to leave, and is followed by the four youngsters behind him.

"Pierce." Harvey addresses Pierce.

"Yes?" Pierce answers.

"We'll go on ahead to the Senatus. Take Rina back to the inn."

"I'll go on ahead then."

Harvey watches Pierce go with Rina in his arms. "Let's go on ahead to the Senatus."

* * *

Before anyone even says anything, Flowdia smiles at the return of the three. "Welcome, word has reached me of your success in completing the map. You were even faster than those teenagers yesterday. Saturos, I believe they were called. You've proven your mettle strong enough to challenge the Labyrinth. You seem to be missing two members. They might be dead, which wouldn't surprise me, or I could just be misunderstanding and they're probably just injured. It means nothing right now, though. I'll authorize the sale of items at Napier's Firm which you may find necessary in your travels." Flowdia says. Her voice was always soothing in a way.

"Thank you very much." Harvey says.

"I must say, many guilds have passed this first mission, but there's something different about you. Eridani, was it? I have high expectations for you. You'll have a long run in the Labyrinth, I can tell," She laughs softly to herself. "It all depends on your cautiousness and your intelligence. I look forward to more feats in the future. This is the first." Harvey nods his head and takes his leave.

"You didn't have to say much there, huh Harvey?" Twitch says.

"Will you always have something to say during our visits here?"

* * *

Rina wakes up to find herself looking up at the sky, moving. "Oh, you're up again. We're back in town. I'm taking you back to the inn. The others went to the Senatus to show the map." Rina finds a pretty face looking down at her. Well actually, it's just Pierce. He gives her a silly grin, causing her to blush, and looks forward again to just barely avoid running into someone. Well, behind that pretty face is a thick skull.

"How long have I been out?" She asks.

"Pretty long. Carrying you like this with people staring at me is pretty hard. If it weren't for you, I'd been there a long time ago. We're almost there though." Pierce answers.

Rina looks around. "I think I can walk."

"Not you. I guess that wound of yours is still visible, bleeding has long since stopped, though." Pierce answers. He suddenly tenses up. "I've been carrying you for so long; I wouldn't be surprised if the other three were tailing us now.

"Sorry."

"No, it's my fault. It seems like you had everything in control until I came in."

"Mmm."

The two were silent until they reached the inn a good five minutes later. The innkeeper boy was shocked by their return. "That doesn't look good. We need to get her treated immediately." He rushed them into the sanatorium.

"Here ya go." Pierce hands Rina over to stretcher next to the nurse and turns around. "I'll be waiting out here." Pierce steps out the door and takes a seat. The innkeeper boy walks up to him. "So, you failed, huh. You'll get 'em next time. I'm sure of it, boss."

"Actually, we did it. Our leader told me to bring her here. The others should be here soon." He gave him an assuring smile.

"Really? That's great to hear!" The innkeeper boy exclaims. Suddenly, his face shows curiosity. "Did anyone die today?" Pierce gives him a funny look. The entrance to the inn opens and he hears a familiar voice.

"How many times did you die? I'm actually gettin' more impressed as we talk about it." Pierce stands up to greet them. The Saturos Guild had returned from their most recent foray. Sprit was conducting a conversation.

"What's up guys? We passed our first mission." Pierce explains.

"Wow, great job," Fei congratulates. "Where are the others?"

"Harvey sent me to bring Rina to the infirmary here. It doesn't look too ridiculous though, just a flesh wound. The other three went to the Senatus to report our success. They should be back real soon." Pierce says.

"Sounds good. We went ahead to the second floor and found a huge-ass lizard blocking the way," Fei says. "We didn't want to mess with it yet."

Sprit grunts. "I thought we coulda taken it."

"An FOE? We can't take those the way we are now." Al explains.

"Says the one who wouldn't stay alive." Sprit replies.

"At least I died in places you could revive me. If you went ahead and fought that thing, we wouldn't have been able to do anything to your body."

"Ah, shut it smart boy."

Pierce waits for a second. "I'm surprised Carrick, you haven't said anything yet. You're usually the first to speak."

"Punishment for yesterday. No pretentious remarks from him today. He also pissed me off a while ago, another reason. Told him to shut his trap for the remainder of the day or else I'd stop buying his meals," Fei explains. She turns to Carrick. "I think it's worked pretty well."

Twitch and Dorian appear through the doorway, with Harvey emerging behind them. "Pierce, did we miss anything?"

"What could you have possibly missed?" Pierce answers.

"How's Rina?"

"She woke up fine on the way here. She's in there right now. It doesn't look to bad. That therry-thingy that you gave her probably worked." Pierce explains.

"So I guess we've got nothing to worry about," Harvey turns his head to see Saturos. Harvey nods his head. "How are you?"

Al tips his cap, and everyone else nods with a smile.

"Hey Pierce, if anything like that happens again, you won't have to carry the body all the way back here." Twitch says. He tosses an item over to Pierce. It's a white thread, seemingly useless.

"What? A piece of yarn? How does this have anything to do with what you just said?" Pierce asks.

"That, my friend, is an Ariadne Thread. That stuff teleports whole guilds back to the entrance of the Labyrinth. The woman at Napier's Firm gave that to us. Our survivability has increased tenfold!" Twitch explains.

"I learned today that they won't give those things to rookies who haven't mapped the first floor yet," Harvey explains. "Death toll is higher than it should be."

Pierce studies the thread. "How do we use it? It's just a piece of thread."

Dorian takes the thread from him. "Well, we just do thi-"

Harvey stops him. "Don't do it now! We got this one for quite a bit of money. Save it for when we need it."

Pierce turns to Al. "What was that you said? FOE?"

"Yes, an FOE, short for Formido Oppugnatura Exsequens, or, even easier, Field on Enemy. Those are large monsters that don't usually attack you unless you provoke them. That's just usually. Even so, they're gigantic, they can take a lot of abuse, and they're pretty good at killing things," Al explains. "There are quite a few of them. They're easy to detect, but sometimes hard to avoid. I'd say avoiding as many as you can until you're strong enough, smart enough, and foolish enough to take one head on. One last thing, you won't find any on the first floor."

"That seems kind of cool." Pierce comments.

"Seems cool now, but they should be a pain in the ass to kill." Al turns to Fei.

"We could take the rest of the day off. Our bag got pretty well filled in there, what do you think Al?" Fei says.

"I think you are absolutely correct."

"Yes, so take this and bring it to Napier's Firm."

"Aye aye." Al takes the bag and walks out.

Fei turns her attention to Eridani. "How was your first mission? Rough?"

Harvey answers. "Well, since we're back with Ariadne Threads, you can probably tell we passed. Rina's in there because she ran off alone, and then Pierce was foolish enough to follow suit. That's how Pierce got his cheek roughed up, and why Rina's in there. Rina's wound isn't really all that bad. According to Pierce, she got hit by a poison tail from a platypus, and that's why she's not moving. She looked completely fine everywhere else, though."

"Platypus? You shouldn't be able to find any of those on the first floor."

"I was surprised myself." Harvey says.

The sanatorium's door opens, revealing a relieved nurse and a rather enraged looking Rina. "She should be good to go. She's not at 100%, but she should be fine." The nurse explains.

Rina stomps over to Pierce. "I said I was sorry a while ago, but then treatment began. So, in order to keep my mind away from the pain, I began to think. The baby and its parents were going off on their ways, but then stupid muscular blonde appears and punts the baby, and now I'm I have come to the conclusion that this was entirely your fault."

Pierce scratches the back of his head. "Sorry, but you know, I did say that it was my fault a while ago. I guess you weren't listening."

Twitch laughs. "Arguing? I think we've bonded pretty well these two days, huh?"

Harvey chuckles. "You seem to be correct.," Harvey assumes a stance of pride. "You guys did a good job today, better than what I expected. We should go to the Bistro and celebrate. How about it?"

"Well if that's the case, we'll go on ahead with you." Fei announces.

The two guilds agree, and spend the rest of the day talking, drinking, and eating.

* * *

I finished this one much faster than I thought I would. I think I did a much better job in this chapter than I did in all of the other chapters. I'll be introducing two new characters next chapter, along with Kujura. This is the last update for the year, and I wish you all a Happy New Year. Our next bio is Harvey's.


	4. Chapter 4: Sweet Tooth

Name: Kentigern Harvey

Class: Buccaneer

Hair: Reddish Brown

Eyes: Black

Hometown: "Plainloch"

Age: 38

Charm Point: Eye Patch, Age

A stern and serious man who loves the thrills of exploring and close combat. He is known in the neighborhood as the canned food seller. He was apparently known for his hearty and caring personality, but for some reason, that is no longer apparent. The Eridani Guild found him unusually lonely for a neighborhood shopkeeper. Harvey joined the Eridani Guild during a stargazing session. Shortly afterward, he became known as guild leader after being seen as the only one responsible enough for the title.

He hates his eye patch. Unbeknownst to him, his eye isn't actually injured anymore, but after being closed for so long after healing, he has lost sight in that eye.

* * *

The guild had spent the night at the Butterfly Bistro to eat, drink, and converse. Harvey wakes up to the sunlight sailing from the ceiling to his single functional eye. He sits up and looks around the room, filtered orange by the young sunlight. He is still tired, and he doesn't hear any noise outside. On the other side of the wall behind him, Twitch's room, he could hear, singing? Harvey exhales a deep yawn and, without a second thought, lies back down returning to his slumber. Not even a minute later, the door shakes violently for a second, followed by a muffled "Oof" on the other side. Harvey's eye snaps open. Frustration overcomes Harvey as he wriggles out of his bed and trudges to the door.

"What do you want?" Harvey commands as he opens the door. On the floor was a sniffling young girl with brown hair and a white shirt sprawled on the ground with a magazine next to her leg. Running from across the hallway is a short young woman with brown hair panting frantically.

"No!" Sprit exclaims, almost randomly. Harvey, despite Sprit's command, squats on the floor and picks up the magazine. Interesting. Upon inspection, Harvey could tell that this was something that could get her to lose the respect of her guild mates. Well, she still is a teenager, after all. Sprit dives and attempts to snatch it away, but Harvey does a little twirl and Sprit is left accidentally colliding with the whimpering Zinovia. Harvey stands up tall and holds out the article that he had just acquired.

"Is this something I have to worry about?"

Sprit quickly turns red and stammers. "N-no! Of course not! This isn't your business!"

"Doesn't seem like it should be yours either," Harvey looks back at the magazine. "While you're our allies, you're still competition. Knowing something like this about an opposing force is definitely a confidence bringer," Harvey tosses the magazine back to her. "I'll pretend this never happened. I feel as though I had just lost valuable sleeping time to learn something I didn't want to learn. Don't do anything like that again, please?"

Sprit holds the magazine close to her, as though fearing it would be left out in the open again, and nods. "Yes! Please do not mention any of this," Sprit turns her head angrily to Zinovia, who was rubbing her forehead. "That means you too."

Harvey turns without another word and closes the door on the two. The table clock reads 8 am, enough time for maybe another hour of sleep. Harvey walks to the mirror over his temporary bed and examines himself. It had been a while since Harvey really engaged in any sort of vigorous activity. With his recently shaven face, leaving just a scruffy chin, his re-energized expression, and slowly reactivating muscles, he really did look sort of young again. Just sort of. He brushes his thumb from one end of his chin to the other and smiles to himself for a very quick second. Then, Harvey crawls onto the bed and takes no time to lose consciousness.

* * *

At breakfast, the other four seem to be almost lifeless. They sluggishly eat their food without saying much. It was strange to see Pierce so devoid of energy. Harvey had never seen any of them so inert. Well, except for Rina. Rina seldom participated in the bunkum that occurred during the "celebration", and she did not drink either. After breakfast, Harvey prompts them to get ready for their next foray, when Pierce decides it is a good idea to open his big mouth.

"I'm having a bit of a hangover, can we just chill for today?"

Harvey blinked. Perhaps calling for a celebration was a terrible idea after all. They were all so dead at breakfast; they are probably worn out and only half aware of what they are even doing at the moment. If they were to go adventuring now, they would most certainly get killed due to lack of awareness and rational thinking. After pondering for a moment, Harvey sighs,

"Very well, but no drinking from any of you today, you hear me?"

Pierce and Dorian both give a less than energetic "Aye". Twitch shrugs to himself and returns to his quarters. Somewhat unsatisfied, Harvey crashes on the couch near him and takes off his hat. Rina confronts him.

"I understand why you have decided to give us a day off, but I find it baffling that we will take a break immediately after we've started." Rina still has that distinctive blank look on her face.

Harvey scratches his chin. "Nothing will change my decision. I don't think the other three are capable of working to the best of their abilities the way they are now. If they can't do what they're supposed to do, we aren't going to survive."

"Yes but-"

"But nothing. I'm just as disappointed as you are, but understand that we are not in position to be risking our lives today."

Rina sighs. "I-I understand." She nods and goes back to her quarters. Rina and Twitch seem to be the two that Harvey could respect very well. The other two on the other hand…

"Hey!" Fei appears from one of the doors and dashes to the messy dining table. She is wearing a red tank top and long black shorts along with a towel draped over her shoulder. It appears she had just taken a bath. Even so, the face bandage is still existent. "I told the inn boy to leave a glass of cold milk here for me while I took a bath," She takes an empty glass from the table. "What happened to this?"

"I drank it." Pierce dully says.

"You what!?"

"I said I drank it." Pierce yawns.

"You found a glass of milk on the table and decided it was yours to take?" Fei has her fist in front of his face now.

"Yes, why? Is it a problem? You could always just get another."

"I already sort of paid for it!"

"Well, I have no money. Not my problem, is it?" Pierce holds his hands above his head and smirks.

"No, but the humungous bruise that's about to appear on your face will be!"

Harvey stands up. "That's enough. I'll pay for a new one for you, Fei." Harvey notices the sudden 180 in Fei's personality. Perhaps she was only polite and respectable when she was making first impressions. Or maybe she was just angry.

"Thank you, Harvey, but I don't want you to spend your money on this idiot."

"The 'idiot' wants to apologize," Harvey eyes Pierce. "Does he?" Pierce's blinks a few times.

"No."

Suddenly, Pierce is fast asleep on the couch with a big bruise near his nose.

"Harvey, aren't you supposed to be standing up for your guild mates?" Dorian asks.

"Yes, but I think he deserved that one," Harvey sits back down. "Fei."

"Hmm?" Fei looks behind her and at Harvey.

"Did you really need to cause a scene over a glass of milk?"

"It wasn't just any milk. It was a Chateau Romani."

"Uh, what?" Harvey mulls over the name for a second, and doesn't find it familiar.

"Vintage milk, expensive. That'll cost you about 200en."

"Damn him. I'm not paying for that. When he wakes up, I'll find a way to get him to pay you back."

"Thanks, but I still want that milk."

Harvey thinks to himself for a minute. "Alright, I'll pay for one, and then Pierce is going to have to pay us both back."

Fei smiles. "Thanks."

The calm room is suddenly bombarded by the roaring members of Saturos. Carrick, evidently uncaring, and Sprit, evidently aggravated, were in a half-heated argument about something. Most of the heat was emitting from Sprit, while Carrick was displaying sarcasm in his retorts.

"What's the matter, Sprit?" Fei approaches them with her hand grasping the towel on her shoulder. Carrick snickers. Sprit punches his arm and frowns.

"This son-of-a-bitch stepped on my fishing rod and broke it. Now I don't know how to use my day off." Sprit sticks her tongue out.

"Taking the day off too, I see?" Harvey observes.

Fei nods. "Carrick, what did you do?"

"Just what she said. I said I was sorry. No hard feelings! I could just buy her a new one."

"You don't have any money." Fei says.

"Well, yeah…"

"See?" Sprit declaims. "I got no fishing rod to fish with until he has money to buy a new one. Besides, he's just going to keep spending the money he earns. The only thing I can do now is yell at 'im." Sprit proceeds to shout insults at the Hoplite.

Fei shakes her head. "So," She turns around to face Harvey. "I believe you've decided to take the day off, what are you going to do?"

Harvey shrugs. "Dunno. I'll probably relax on this couch for a bit, and then take a walk outside."

Fei studies him for a moment. "You'll have to make sure that your guild mates are doing something that you can interfere."

"They're respectable kids. I don't think they'll be doing anything too ridiculous that I can't stop. I told them they're free to do whatever they want"

"Well, if you're a true leader, they'll follow whatever you say." Harvey waits for her to say something else, but she doesn't.

"Well, what will you be doing?"

"Me? I'll train for a bit, and then take a stroll by the beaches. After that, I hope to spend some time with my guild mates."

Harvey glances at Sprit, who is visibly irritated by Fei's ignorance of her.

"First, you should resolve this conflict going on over here." Harvey comments.

Fei stares at him before turning to the two opposing forces. "You two, shut up for a second. We'll just buy you a new one together, Sprit."

Sprit frowns, dumbfounded, while Carrick straightens up with a wide grin on his face.

"But, Carrick isn't earning any income for the next seven days."

Sprit closes her eyes and smiles, content. Carrick's jaw drops.

"B-but, seven days? I can't risk my life for seven days without getting any form of compensation!" Carrick exclaims. His eyes show complete worry. Quite the dilemma he was in.

"Well, then you never should have destroyed her fishing pole. Even if it was unintentional." Fei says coldly. She dismisses him with a wave of her hand. Harvey has to admit, Fei is an unaffectionate but respectable leader who knows how to get the job done. No mercy from her.

"Excuse me." Al shimmies between Fei and Carrick and hurries to his room.

The group watches him scurry to his quarters. "What's up with him?" Sprit asks.

* * *

Harvey puts his bicorne back on and creeps into a rather worn black vest. Just as he was about to prepare to take his walk, a voice behind him interrupts.

"You're leaving? I'm bored. Can I come with you?" Dorian's voice is somewhat enthusiastic, but not really.

Harvey thinks to himself for a minute, then shrugs. "Why not? In fact, get the others."

Dorian nods and scampers away. In less than ten seconds, the other three are right behind her.

"You needed us, Harvey?" Twitch asks.

"No, not really. I'm just about to take a walk. Dorian insisted on coming with me, and I decided that bringing you guys along probably was a better idea."

"Alright then. I'm all for it." Twitch takes off his shady coat and tosses it on the couch. Underneath that coat was an equally shady black, long-sleeved shirt.

"Is Saturos coming with us?" Dorian asks.

"I hope not. I don't want that gleaning monk to walk around with us on our day off." Pierce explains.

"No, they aren't. Come on. Let's walk." Harvey directs his subordinates out the door.

"To where?" Pierce asks.

"Nowhere in particular, we'll walk the scale of the district and find ourselves back here eventually.

"Sounds good." Twitch says.

* * *

The five members of Eridani begin their walk with silence, but the view of the ocean prompts Twitch to start conversation. "Beautiful, isn't it? I haven't had the chance to admire the land since we got here two days ago.

"You seem easily impressed." Rina comments

"A handful of things are beautiful. An ocean beach view with clear skies is always an immaculate sight," Twitch says. He looks down at Rina for a second before setting his sights back on the beach.

"I've seen a many things that are much more beautiful." Rina says.

"Beauty can take on many forms, "Pierce states. "Take this flower, for example," He plucks a flower from the cracks between the tiles. "It looks nice. The sky is also a very nice… and so is that girl over there building the sand castle, "Pierce chuckles. "I just look at these things and they're all beautiful," Pierce grins wide and looks to the sky. Then he looks down at Rina. "I can look at your face," Rina goes stiff.

"And I'll decide to look at all the other beautiful things again." Rina trips him within a millisecond. As much as she hates to admit it, she expected him to say something like that.

"You all right there, Pierce?" Harvey asks. He halts and offers his hand, which Pierce doesn't take.

"I'm fine, thank you." Pierce pushes himself off the floor and brushes his shoulders off.

"That was, uh, quite poetic, Pierce. You had quite a sense of alacrity there," Harvey comments. "I didn't think you would have the ability to do something like that." Harvey wanted to take that back. It really wasn't all _that _poetic.

"He usually doesn't." Twitch replies.

"Hey, I've read a lot of books before. I picked up some things from them." Pierce retorts.

"Ah, that's right. You had, like, 3 books in your shelf in your room didn't you?"Twitch says.

"3 poetry books. I read each one cover to cover maybe 3 times."

"Well, since you were living in that empty hovel for that long, it's not very surprising that you'd read them sometime."

"Yeah, I wish I had more".

"You know, with the kind of place we were from, it's not very surprising you couldn't leave that place. The store wasn't even enough to help Phot-" Twitch is interrupted when Pierce elbows his shoulder more than lightly. Twitch glances at Pierce, who wordlessly shakes his head. Twitch doesn't stop to think. "S-sorry."

"You weren't able to leave for a better home? I thought you were from the Rad City for Attractive People." Rina says.

"Hey, you didn't want to give your origin either." Pierce says.

Rina doesn't say anything else.

The five continue their idle chitchat until they walk into the vicinity of a candy store called "Gaius's Pockets". Pierce stops in his tracks and turns his head to look inside at the children buying candy. Instinctively, he walks inside.

It takes about ten seconds before Twitch realizes that Pierce has been left behind. He informs the others and checks back. Twitch detects the candy store and immediately reacts.

"He's in there." Twitch says, almost to himself as he jogs inside. Harvey freezes for a short second, surprised, before following him inside.

Twitch walks in expecting it to find Pierce immediately. Instead, he is overwhelmed by the endless shelves of different candies and the three floors looming overhead. The store is styled so that you can look down to each floor the higher up you are. The higher two floors have a U shape, the resulting crevice allowing sight of other floors. Twitch's stress level rises to a dangerous level.

"What made you think that Pierce would be in here?" Harvey asks, approaching behind him.

"Pierce has got a bit, well I shouldn't say a bit. He's got a huge sweet tooth. He's taken drastic measures to mild his appetite for sugar, but it seems the sight of so much candy amassed into a single spot was too much for him to avoid." Twitch calmly says.

"Should I be worried?"

Twitch's expression darkens. "With this amount of candy and this much space to move around, probably." Twitch suddenly rushes ahead.

"Wait!" Harvey exclaims. Twitch is already lost in the swarm of children and parents. "This can't be good." Harvey turns around, surprising the two girls.

"Dorian, I want you to check the second floor. Look through every aisle and make sure that there isn't a buff blonde kid stuffing himself. Rina, you do whatever it is you ninjas do when you look for people." Harvey commands. Dorian nods, looking around for a staircase, (while hiding a lollipop in her dress, Harvey decides to confiscate anything else she steals later), and Rina jumps fast enough to look as though she had vanished.

"Well, here goes." Harvey steps forward, looks up and eyes the third floor's balcony.

* * *

Pierce isn't sure if he is even in a rational state right now, but he doesn't care. He is carrying an overfilled bag full of chocolate, gum drops, lollipops and more sugary goodness. The children he walks past would stare at him in curiosity, while their parents would visibly avoid having him in their sight. He doesn't care. All that matters is that the stuff in his bag will soon become the stuff in his belly.

He hears his name being called by a woman, presumably Dorian. He stops in his tracks and shimmies against the side of the aisle. Dorian's voice is coming from the other side. She calls his name, pauses for a second, and then continues on to the next aisle. After she passes Pierce's aisle, Pierce lets out a breath he didn't know he was even holding and scurries the opposite direction.

*SNORT*SNORT*

A little wild boar is coming straight at him. In desperation and surprise, Pierce holds out the bag of candy in front of him a little too late as the boar slides past and hits him. Pierce's general stance causes him to cause the boar to stop moving any further as he grabs onto it as he falls.

"Argh!"

Pierce tumbles backwards three times before friction catches up, and his scapula causes him to sit upright with the boar looking up at him in curiosity on his lap, its head tilted. It would be cute if it weren't so hairy. What the hell is a hog doing in a candy store full of children?

"Festus! Stop right there!"

A young man with tan skin and a mainly blue colored tribal costume rushes over to Pierce. The humongous mask on his head looks terrifying, but the stern expression on his face shows a mature, poised man. He maunders over to Pierce and lifts the swine.

"Finally. Miracle you didn't kill anyone on your way here," The man makes a strange maneuver, and Pierce goes blank for a split second. When his vision came back, the boar was gone. The man was staring off in the other direction."I wonder where Ocella has gone."

"Uh…"

"My apologies." The man doesn't say anything else, picking up the dropped candy and placing it back in his bag. Pierce takes the opportunity to observe the man. He isn't wearing a shirt, but has tribal armor on his shoulders and long green pants. His mask has blue and white mane on the edges. He can't get a good look of his eyes. He has a black tattoo of a gecko on his back. There are smaller imprints of other animals surrounding it.

"Um, no problem," After collecting all of the sweets scattered on the floor, Pierce decides to learn a bit about the guy. "Thanks a lot. Can I have your name?"

The man stands up and stays silent for a moment. "My name is T'skila," he pauses for a moment, then continues. "Ibanurete. I'm an exploration guild leader, pleased to meet you." He offers his hand to shake. He carries a slight accent, only detectable if you were listening for it.

Pierce takes it without hesitation. "Pierce," he pauses in the same manner that he had. "Adtsauw. I'm an explorer as well." They share a firm handshake until Dorian appears behind him and taps his shoulder.

"Where have you been? You disappeared!" Dorian explains. "I'm taking you back. Twitch looked really serious for once!" Dorian pushes him forward. Pierce looks back at T'skila, but he was already walking away. Pierce glances downward to find his bag still on the floor.

"Wait, can't I bring my bag?"

"No."

Pierce sighs and decides to walk on his own.

* * *

Harvey inspects the last aisle and finds no trace of Pierce. Shrugging, he goes all the way around to the staircase to run into a young woman with green hair and an overly revealing top. She seems to be lost, as she was aimlessly wandering, her head changing direction every so often. Harvey passes by her and opens his mouth for a second before closing it again as he walks down the stairs. Someone must have found Pierce by now. After walking down the stairs, passing a strange young man with a tribal appearance, he finds Dorian and Pierce on the other side of the floor.

"Not bad, Dorian," He mutters to himself. He slightly picks up his pace and makes his way over to them, when suddenly Dorian stumbles a bit and Pierce is off running. Dorian finally trips, knocks something over, and gets up to trip again. Pierce slows down and begins taking things from the shelves. "Huh." Harvey climbs over the railing and clambers downward, swinging himself to the first floor, surprising a few children.

* * *

Twitch frantically checks every aisle. Pierce usually does something stupid when he's around this much candy. He usually does stupid things, but sugar frenzies cause him to go almost berserk. In desperation, Twitch runs upstairs and calls out his name.

Which he responds to.

"Hey Twitch, how are you? Isn't this place neat? There's candy everywhere!"

Pierce is sitting on the floor counting some candy. Twitch sighs.

"You have enough money to pay for that?"

"Probably not. I'll see what I can do."

Twitch lets out a breath and slouches in relief. Pierce really didn't seem all too mad. Although the amount of candy he has on the floor is enough to make someone sick.

"How much money do you have on you?"

"None."

Twitch sighs for the third time in the last minute. "Ok, we're going home, Where are the others?"

"What, I can't have a few?"

"Without money? No."

Pierce picks up a chocolate bar and stands up.

Then he opens it and starts eating.

"Hey! You have to pay for that!"

"Hey," He says with his mouth full. "I duhserf some rights, don I?"

"You still have to pay for that."

Pierce pays him no mind and picks up a gum drop, which he pops in his mouth.

"Ok, I'm taking you back," Twitch grabs his arm and attempts to walk back down the stairs, but he wouldn't budge. "Look Pierce, I seriously thought you were going to go into one of your episodes again. You've never been around this much sugar."

'I haven't. I guess I was just overwhelmed." Pierce finishes the rest of his candy bar and puts the wrapper in his pocket. Twitch shakes his head

"Fine then," Twitch takes a step forward. "Remember why we left _that place_? The place we called home? The place where she worked so hard to keep you?"

Pierce takes a while to respond, but Twitch knows that he understands what he's talking about. "Yes, I remember."

"I don't want anything like that happening here. We've worked hard to even be here in the first place. Didn't Harvey tell us not to run off alone?"

"Yes." Pierce mutters.

"Alright, remember to control yourself. No more sugar for today." Twitch about faces and walks as Pierce follows.

"Wait!"

The two turn to find Dorian catching up to them, candy occasionally falling out of her dress.

"I found him first. I need to get credit for finding him."

Twitch turns his head to Pierce. "Is that true?"

Suddenly, Rina appears from nowhere, presumably the ceiling, next to Dorian and replies, "Yes."

"Where have you been all this time?" Dorian asks.

"I was looking for Pierce, until I saw you taking things from the shelves. I got distracted and followed you." Rina says.

"I can pay for it." Dorian says. Pierce's face lights up.

"No you can't." Rina replies. Pierce's face droops a little.

"How would you know?"

"You wouldn't have hid everything under your dress if you could," Rina grabs her by the shoulder and turns away from Pierce and Twitch. "Come with me, I'll be commandeering anything else I find," Rina looks up at Dorian, mentally cursing herself for being short. "In other words, I will inspect your entire person until I am sure that there is nothing else that isn't yours, _Your Highness_."

Pierce and Twitch stare dumbfounded as Rina pulls a nonsense-rambling Dorian away from them. Without moving, Twitch speaks. "Let's go find Harvey."

* * *

Harvey waits behind the stairwell's sideboard with a large candy cane. He can pay for it later. Dorian and Pierce should have gone down the stairs already, what is taking them so long? Suddenly, Harvey hears Pierce's voice coming down the stairs.

"…when Dorian found me, the tribal guy was already walking away…" He could hear Pierce's voice explain a story. Why was he referring to Dorian as if she wasn't there? He listens as their clops come closer to his general position. Harvey readies himself, changing his stance.

"…then she tripped on her own dress, which le- ARGH!" Harvey swings the candy cane into Pierce's stomach.

Except Twitch is the one lying awkwardly against the steps.

"Oh."

Pierce fearfully looks at Twitch trying to recover, then glances at Harvey. "What the hell are you doing!?" Harvey's face looks very stern and blank, but his voice suggests otherwise.

"Sorry. I thought Twitch was Dorian. She was stealing candy," Harvey holds out a hand to help Twitch get back on his feet. Twitch takes it and struggles to stand up straight. "And I was aiming for you. Where are the other two?"

"Rina took Dorian away to get rid of all the stuff she stole." Pierce answers.

"What about you? Did you take anything?"

"Well…" Pierce mutters. Maybe he won't notice. "I almost did, but I didn't"

"Yeah you did, don't lie." Twitch mutters. Damn it, Twitch was too much of a good guy.

Harvey nods. "Are you lying?"

Pierce hangs his head. "Yes."

"How much did you take?"

"A candy bar and a few gum drops. I'm not lying this time." Pierce says.

Harvey looks to Twitch for reassurance, who nods at his statement.

"Ok, you don't have any money on you, so I'll be paying for now." Harvey says. Pierce smiles. Harvey has never shown this much mercy before.

"Oh, and Pierce?"

Yes? Pierce's head is upright again.

"I'm expecting you to pay me back. Not just for this, I paid for Fei's second glass of milk. That's 400en along with whatever the stuff you ate costs."

Pierce mentally slaps himself in the face for taking Fei's glass without apologizing.

* * *

As it turns out, Dorian had taken a lot of things, and with Rina's insistence, the five of them put all of the confiscated candy back in their respective shelves. After they were finished, they apologized for any inconvenience they caused and headed out. It was sunset.

The group looks down the beach. There are only couples and families on the beach now, staring out into the sunset. "That's what I can call beautiful without worrying about anyone disagreeing." Twitch says.

Harvey nods and turns to the four younger adventurers. "That's our day off. Thanks Pierce," Dorian groans. "As much as I hate to admit it, I had quite a bit of fun today. Tomorrow, it's back to the Labyrinth." Harvey validates.

"Seems good to me." Twitch says.

The five of them make their way back to the Inn. Pierce looks back one more time at the candy store.

"What kind of name is Gaius's Pockets?"

The guild spends their walk back talking about possible reasons. The tribal man leaning against the wall of the store two buildings down watches them with a girl with green hair next to him, sitting on a barrel.

"Interesting bunch, don't you think?" The tribal man says.

"Mmm." She replies. She has a lollipop in her hand.

"Alright Ocella, ready to go?"

The girl hops off the barrel and nods.

"Alright then."

* * *

After two and a half months, I've finally gotten this done. It's amazing how much time school can take away from you. I also got my hands on a copy of Fire Emblem: Awakening, and I played through Rin's Route in Katawa Shoujo (great game, not something you'd expect to come from 4chan), so I've been getting distracted as of late.

About this chapter, I felt that I really needed (desperately) to let out the personalities of each character and let them show a bit more. I wanted to make a statement that Twitch is an overly good guy, Dorian and Pierce are somewhat irresponsible, and that Rina is a rational and blatant person. Al is supposed to be a farmer, which I'm afraid wasn't very clear. He'll be taking a large role later. This is a full 1,000 words longer than my previous chapters. Don't worry, I won't be making any more chapters as unprogressive (is that a word?) as this one.

Harvey's bio was supposed to be different, but I realized that I didn't want to spill the beans on his history just yet. I believe I already did so for Pierce, so I won't for Harvey, since he's supposed to be the main character. Eventually, another chapter will contain a new bio for him, concerning his history.

Also, who are those two mysterious characters? They'll be appearing again soon, but don't expect them to appear again just yet.

What? Kujura? Supposed to be in this chapter? I made no such claim!

Next bio will be Dorian's. Oh, I am going to spill a lot of not-supposed-to-be-known information about her in that bio. Speaking of Dorian, she needs to speak more. I'll work on that.


	5. Chapter 5: Princess

Name: Dorian "Ven" DuPleiss

Class: Princess

Hair: Blond

Eyes: Blue

Hometown: "That important castle, you know…"

Age: 17

Charm Point: Does not look of poverty

Despite her self-acclaimed "royal lineage", she has little manners and is actually quite a tomboy. In reality, Dorian was originally a member of a street gang in Armoroad under the name "Ven" until she found a priceless golden bracelet during a beach stroll and sold it to a foolish collector. After spending all of her money on luxuries and her appearance, she has commonly become mistaken for someone of royal ancestry and has given up on suggesting otherwise. She put herself up for hire and joined the Eridani Guild after gaining no luck in finding ways to earn more money. Her strong personality fades when someone mentions her gang past.

She is, in fact, of royal lineage. Her uncle is a king in a distant nation. However, her father was executed due to treason and she was sent to Armoroad by herself as an orphan when she was very young.

* * *

_**Opening Flashback**_

Harvey leads Dorian to his room. The buccaneer gestures her to take a seat next to the desk, which she does, while he pulls up a seat of his own and sits. Dorian, rather frightened, begins to feel cold outside, but warm inside. It's this feeling again.

"Well then, Dorian. How have you been?" Harvey asks.

"Fine, thank you." Dorian speaks all she can think. She was usually more impulsive and confident than this. How come she can't show those traits now?

"I haven't seen you very much at all lately. Your friends have stopped visiting too."

"Yeah…"  
Harvey scratches his chin. "You know, your visit rate had decreased after you turned all elegant. Eventually you just stopped visiting at all. What happened?"

Dorian takes a second to think. "I grew up."

Harvey chuckles to himself. "Don't lie. I don't see how you can outgrow garbanzo beans. Besides, you started visiting only a year ago. You surely didn't grow up that quickly, did you?"

Dorian's eyes grow wide for a second and she thinks again, trying to come up with a retort, but Harvey speaks before she can say anything.

"Your old 'friends'. Were they really your friends?" Harvey's friendly face is replaced by an unyielding, fixed façade. It seems as though he is finally being serious.

Harvey told her not to lie, so she isn't going to. She isn't going to refuse orders from the guild leader (He is the guild leader, right? She doesn't remember anyone saying anything like that, but for some reason, it seems that way). "No. I don't know what you're talking about." She doesn't say anything else.

Harvey studies her for a minute. It seems she isn't quite ready for a change in peers. He replaces his mug with a calm expression. "I recognized the old 'friends' that you, I'm sorry, '_Ven_' used to hang out with. Not only that, but also the type of clothes 'Ven' used to wear. They were the Kappa Pack. I considered notifying authorities, but 'Ven' was too consistent of a customer to send away," Harvey chuckles for a second. "It's hard to believe how much she's changed. Did you decide to go to school and find out how smart you actually are?"

Dorian lightly puffs her cheeks and furrows her brows. School? That's for losers! "Nope! I found this nifty watch at the beach and sold it," She abruptly stood up and held her arms forward, but spread apart, as if to show herself to Harvey. "Now look at me! I'm a pretty princess now!" Holding her fists against her hips, she closes her eyes and nods in approval, until she realizes that she had just revealed herself to Harvey. The guild leader! Now what?

Harvey puts on a fascinated look with his chin resting on his thumb. "Uh huh. Interesting."

* * *

Tick, tick, tick. RINGGGGGGGGGGG-SMASH

Dorian knocks the alarm clock, the inn's alarm clock, off the night stand and rolls over to her side. She wants sleep. They're supposed to go back in the labyrinth today, and Dorian was less than excited to get up and go back in there. She might be tough, but she's not a fighter. She audibly groans at this thought and pulls more of the sheets closer to her. She has a new, nicer family now, but she should still be allowed to sleep, right? After closing her eyes for what feels like only two minutes, the door swings open.

"Dorian? We're all at the breakfast table waiting for you. Why haven't you gotten ready yet?" Rina walks in already in her adventure clothes. Letting her eyes wander for a moment, she finds armor, a sword, some clothes, and a watermelon on the floor. Her Kitsune mask is absent, surprisingly.

"What? My alarm clock just rang!" Dorian says, she doesn't get up.

"Well, when did you set it to?"

"8:00 am! Exactly what Harvey told me to set it to!"

"It's 8:40."

"Huh?" Dorian springs up. She is wearing just her nightshirt and panties. Her nightshirt isn't even buttoned up. Reacting immediately, Rina closes the door behind her.

"Hurry up. We're all waiting for breakfast," Rina explains. She leans on the wall next to the door and looks out the window. It's a nice day. "Why is there a watermelon on the floor?"

"I stole-" Dorian stops herself midsentence, trying to fit into a large white dress. "I mean, I found it at the beach."

"When did you find time to go to the beach?" Rina shakes her head. "Never mind, I don't think you need to wear that. It's probably better if you wore something else."

Dorian straightens it on herself and reaches for her steel arm. "Nonsense! A princess must always be presentable!"

"You're gonna find yourself covered in mud a lot. Not something you'd want to happen to an expensive white dress like that." Rina says.

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that." Dorian sets her tiara on her head and rushes out the door. Rina watches her leave and takes one last look around the room to find a purple bra hanging from the bed.

* * *

"Mmmhmmm." Al hums a tune to himself as he prepares an egg. He is making breakfast today, so he wants to make a good impression. Fei had complained of a money deficiency after buying Sprit a new fishing rod. As a result, they have to make their own food. Sprit had a supply of ingredients from who knows where, and the innkeeper agreed to let them use the kitchen. Al sighs at this thought. They are continuing their adventuring later, and he had fallen quite a few times on their last one. As much as he hates to admit it, Sprit was right. He died too many times there. Maybe he needs to learn how to fight.

"Hey Al, are you finished?" Fei steps into the empty kitchen and takes a glass cup.

"Not quite yet. Give me a few minutes." Al says. He has a banquet on the counter. There was only one final egg being prepared on a pan. Fei picks up a hash brown and takes a bite.

"Mmm. Not bad," Fei turns around and takes a step forward, examining the pictures on the wall. Taking another bite of the hash brown and swallowing, she begins to make conversation. "Are you ready for today?"

Al flips the egg yolk over a bit. "For me, there is no ready. I'm a farmer." Al pinches a bit of salt and sprinkles it over the egg.

Fei stares back for a second and takes another bite. "I've been thinking about that giant lizard thing. Hopefully it isn't there anymore. It was passive, so even if it's there, we can find a way around it. If worse comes to worst, we'll have to fight it." Al discernibly gulps at this statement. While he is a fantastic scout and source of information, he never was a fighter, and he never planned to become one either. As bad as it looks, it seems as though he would have to learn soon.

"I'd be useless then. I need to learn how to fight. I don't think I can use weapons correctly. I'm not very strong, and I don't run fast," Al sighs as he places the scrambled egg on an empty plate. "It seems that I may need to learn how to fight on my own."

Fei examines the painting on the wall. There is a boy building a sandcastle, while another boy is in the back with a shovel and a pail. "You have a pitchfork, yeah?"

Al puts the pan in the dishwasher and leans against the counter. "Yes."

"You can learn how to use that," Fei turns around. "Carrick knows how to wave a spear around. I'll get him to teach you for a little while, but after that, you'll have to learn on your own."

Al takes his hat off and stares at it. "I understand."

"Of course, I can't be all too sure what kind of job Carrick does with teaching you, but anything can be made out of anything." Fei slips off her jacket to adjust the tape on her arm. "You're capable of learning anything at the moment."

Al puts his hat back on and picks up a few plates. "Help me out here will you?"

* * *

"Well this is a pleasant surprise." Harvey says. Just as he had said, he is surprised to see the two Saturos members serving them breakfast.

"We've become low on money due to a certain person in this guild," Fei explains, rather ruefully. "We figured that we might as well cook for you too."

"We figured that _I_ would cook for them too." Al says.

Pierce thrusts his fork forward and devours a sausage. After chewing for a few seconds, Pierce shows satisfaction on his face. "Mmm! Dis is fehntastic!" Pierce stabs another sausage and stuffs it in his mouth. Upon seeing this, Twitch makes a strange face and immediately pours himself some water.

"Is it really that good?" Dorian picks up a spoon and stuffs some mashed potatoes in her mouth. "Dis ishn't half bad!" Gulp. "Wow! Who made this?"

Al sighs. "That would be me."

"Well then, boy," The 'princess' takes a sausage and takes a bite. "Lesh expenshiv," Gulp. "Tastes better."

Al scratches his head. "Aw, it can't be all that good."

"Well I love it." Dorian stuffs an egg in her mouth and doesn't say anything else. Twitch, visibly disturbed, turns to Harvey.

"What's the plan, Harvey?" Twitch asks.

"Well, we'll be exploring the rest of the first floor, as boring as that may be, we need money. After that, we'll advance to the second floor and see what happens from there." Harvey answers. Twitch is rather uneasy about Harvey's blithe methods of directing the guild. It seems as though he hasn't grasped the concept of guild leader yet, especially since everybody was half his age.

Al, unsure as to how to respond to praise, takes a seat between Zinovia and Harvey, and takes a bite of his bacon. These past few days were strange. He was recruited by a girl and her three oddball lackeys. Now, it seems as though he had always been a part of their family. Then again, Sprit did say something about meeting Carrick 'three days ago'. Sprit talks a lot. She usually doesn't have anything nice to say, and if she does, it comes out rash. Carrick is clumsy and sarcastic, two rather unlikable traits, but he has smarts, and it always seemed as though his sarcastic remarks had a point. Now that he thinks about it, Carrick is almost never wrong, but Fei just seems to show him no mercy. Zinovia, as young as she is, has almost no energy. Despite this lack of energy, she shows recklessness in the field of battle and once almost killed Sprit, who wasn't even being attacked at the time. In fact, her lack of energy is evident in her ability to ignore Sprit's current bantering from across the table to Dorian. Fei is Fei. She has all of the essentials required for an effective leader. She never shows fear, she will do anything to help her team, and she always knows what to say. Al takes a hash brown and chews on it heartily, finally partaking in the conversation occurring around him. Pierce had apparently said something about socks. For some reason, Al wants in on this, and he could tell that Carrick does too.

* * *

"Fantastic. We're all ready to go?" Harvey asks for the approval of his guild mates.

"Yes." They all say in unison.

Harvey nods in consent. "Great. We'll be exploring the rest of the first floor, gathering anything we can, and we'll continue to the second floor and hang around for a bit until sunset. We'll back in town before dusk. Any questions?" Dorian raises her hand. "Yes, Dorian?"

"Will we be having lunch? We didn't have any last time."

Harvey ponders over the question for a minute. "That's a good question. Since this venture will take until nightfall, we will need to eat lunch," Harvey scratches his head and thinks. "Perhaps we can visit the Butterfly Bistro and get something from there."

"We'll be going in with you." Fei says. Somehow, Harvey had forgotten about them. "We won't be following you into the Butterfly Bistro, but we will run into each other later."

"Yeah, unless you die." Sprit says.

"Or unless we die." Al adds.

"Be quiet."

Harvey glances at Twitch for a second, who shrugs, and looks back at the monk. "See you later then. We'll be going to the Bistro, now."

And so they visit the Butterfly Bistro.

"You two again! How wonderful to see you intact, with a full sized guild too!" Missy greets Twitch and Pierce as they enter.

"Thanks, Missy. We came here to know if we were allowed to take out." Twitch explains.

"For adventurers like yourselves? Of course! Come! Let me take your orderings!" Missy takes out a notepad from almost nowhere and jabs her pen against the paper. After taking their orders of rather simple menu items, Missy rips the note out of the notepad and salutes them. "I'll be with you again shortly!"

The group watches her walk off to inform any vacant cooks. Pierce, Rina, and Dorian immediately begin to converse about unimportant things that they will probably forget about later. Harvey decides it is a good time to join the men playing pool, for some reason. As a result, Twitch is left alone until a short young man with a goatee confronts him. His eyes are obscured by his hair. He seems to have the attire of a cook.

"Oy, I'm one of the chefs here and you seem to be an unoccupied explorer. I know you're probably waiting for your food, but hear me out on this one. I want you to do me a favor"

Twitch doesn't know what to say, and his guild mates are unaware of his current situation. "Go ahead, tell me."

"Alright, I've been working here for only two years, but I feel that my salary is still on the lower side of things. I'm a hard worker and I'm planning on proposing to my girlfriend in a few months, so I'll need a raise to pay for some things in the future. Luckily, I came up with a new delicious recipe that I think is great enough to be considered on the menu. If that recipe makes the menu and sells, I'll get a raise and be able to support any finances. Sadly, the ingredients are monster parts. I'm a chef, and I don't want to die. That's where you come in. I want you to bring in a frog cheek and about three slimy frog legs."

Twitch leans in, absorbed. "Hmm, what do I get out of this?"

"I can give you some 25%-off discount coupons. I know where my boss keeps these things. Also, my girlfriend's sister's been looking for a boy. She's interested in tall, dark men."

Twitch's eyebrow rises. "What does she look like?"

The man is rather surprised by his interest. "She's a little short, she's got brown hair, and she's cute."

Twitch rubs his chin. "Hmm… Well, since I'm on my way to the labyrinth anyway, I'll see what I can do." Twitch gives him a small grin.

"Thank you so much!" The chef's smile grows wide. His eyes are still obscured by his hair. He doesn't look at all old.

"You're welcome. My name's Twitch. I'll most likely have the things you need tomorrow."

The chef nods his head. "I'm Donatello. Pleased to know you're willing to do this for me."

Twitch smiles at his new client. "Twitch, let's go! Our food's ready." Harvey calls. Twitch gives Donatello one final nod and turns away.

"Remember, a frog cheek and three slimy legs!"

* * *

Harvey takes in the forest air again and smiles. "Here we are. We'll be going the path that the guard was blocking before and explore a bit. Then, we'll head down to the second floor and investigate."

After exploring for about a half hour, killing a few durians, fish, and lynxes, Rina comes across some mushrooms underneath a tree. Wordlessly, she walks over and inspects them.

"You find something there, Rina?" Dorian approaches a kneeling Rina.

Rina takes a closer look at the mushrooms before picking one.

"Hey, are you sure you can go and just pick mushrooms like that?" Dorian asks.

Rina stands up and faces Dorian. "These mushrooms are abundant in my homeland. They're considered a delicacy and were very expensive when I was last there."

Dorian tilts her head curiously. "Really?"

Rina takes a rather unprofessional bite. "This tastes… different…" Rina says.

"Uh oh."

Harvey approaches the two. "How's it going over here?" Harvey spots the mushroom. "Ah, trying out the mushrooms here, I see? They're supposed to be really good," Harvey smiles appreciatively and observes the mushroom. Wait a minute. WAIT A MINUTE. "Rina! That's a Jack-O-Lantern!" Rina lunges over and spits out the mushroom, dropping the one in her hands and falls to her knees.

"That's not a pumpkin you fool!" Dorian exclaims.

Harvey ignores her comment and rushes to Rina's aid. Rina, coughing, asks, "Am I going to die?" For once, Rina shows complete worry in her voice. It sounds almost sorrowful.

"No."

Rina shows relief for a moment, and then coughs some more.

"Consuming a Jack-O-Lantern will result in cramps, vomiting," Rina vomits a little, causing Dorian to look away. "and diarrhea."

Rina speaks between coughs. "Shit."

Harvey looks back at Twitch and Pierce, who laughing like idiots and throwing rocks into the waterfall. "Pierce, Rina hurt herself again."

"Okay, and?"

"And I want you to walk around holding her again."

"Aww."

After a bit more exploring and fighting, Twitch had received his frog parts. Luckily for him, his lack of mobility in the midst of battle caused him to be burdened with the task of holding the guild's bag. So, nobody noticed him place a few animal body parts in his enormous pockets. Harvey leads the guild to the stairs and looks down. "Things will only get harder from here. I want to make sure that everyone is in the best shape."

"What about me?" Rina asks.

Harvey doesn't answer her question.

Pierce drops Rina on the ground, who squeaks upon making contact with the earth.

"I can't hold Rina while I fight."

Harvey thinks for a moment. "You're right. Well, in the event of an attack, we'll make sure Rina isn't in the middle of the fracas."

Rina internally sighs and struggles to get up.

"Pierce, pick her up." Twitch says.

"Can I take a break? My arms feel numb right now. I don't like the feel of that kimono of hers."

"It hasn't been that long. You can make it." Twitch says.

Harvey thinks for a bit. "Why don't you take her back, Pierce? You've done it before."

"Well, I'm not doing it again."

Dorian thinks for a second and lights up. "Oh, I know! We can use that thread thing that we got before!" The self-acclaimed 'princess' makes a little victory bounce at her statement.

"No, we only need to use the Ariadne Thread for desperate situations. This isn't really a desperate situation." Harvey says.

"I beg to differ." Rina snaps.

Harvey begins walking down the stairs.

"Wait!" Pierce dashes over, stumbling over Rina, who gasps in pain.

"Problem? Harvey asks, turning his head.

"Yes! We haven't resolved this problem of ours yet!" Pierce exclaims.

Harvey thinks for a moment. "Let's just keep going forward as we have been. If the worst happens, we'll just use the Ariadne Thread."

Pierce turns around, sighs, and picks up Rina. "Sorry." Pierce whispers.

After eating lunch, they arrive at the second floor, surprised to see the almost more of the same.

"What's so different about this floor?" Pierce asks.

Harvey takes a step forward. "There are supposed to be some different monsters here. They're bigger, scarier, and more likely to rip you apart."

The four (along with Rina, who is in Pierce's possession) move ahead into a narrow pathway to the right. Dorian, excited, runs along forward and suddenly stops in her tracks.

"Did you see something?" Harvey asks. Not getting an answer, he approaches her and looks ahead to what she's looking at. There is a giant green monstrosity devouring the leaves on a tree. There is a purple ooze emanating from its fangs. The beast is gigantic and toxic.

"Surprised are you? There is much you should know to survive these depths. Heed my advice,"

All four turn around to find a young blond man with a red jacket. "Is this your first time on the second floor?"

The young man, though alone, makes Harvey feel very uncomfortable. Deciding to emphasize his position, he asks the man who he is. "Yes, why? Who are you?"

The man smiles. "That isn't important at the moment, just as I do not need to know your names." The man shakes his head, still smiling.

Harvey, rather finally impressed by his presence, decides to show more respect. "Very well, then. Perhaps you may give your advice?"

The man's smile lingers for a small moment before disappearing. "That girl there was running along fairly assertively into the unknown," He gestures his head to Dorian, who sticks his tongue out at him. "Those who come here swaggering in triumph from the first floor," The man stops for a moment, eyeing the colossal beast ahead. "usually perish at that beast's presence."

"Always the same one?" Pierce asks.

"Well, obviously not, but those things populate the area in inconvenient numbers," The man answers. "I would be very cautious around the beast's presence if I were you. Luckily for you, it is an herbivore and will only become hostile if you come too close."

"I see, thank you very much." Harvey says. The man gives one last smile before turning around and away from view into the forest. "Shall we go back, then?" Harvey suggests.

"I dunno, you're the leader here." Pierce says. The buccaneer shakes his head.

"It seems that is our only option. With Rina immobile, again, right now, we won't stand a chance here. Let's turn back." Harvey commands. Without anything else, the group turns their way back to run into some familiar faces. Sprit and Fei are discussing something near a tree. Said tree has a familiar farmer, zodiac, and hoplite leaning and sitting against it. Pierce jogs forward to greet the members of Saturos.

"Yo! We've caught up to you! How have you been?" The gladiator says.

Fei, surprised, turns her head to find the gladiator, and grins at his presence. "Hello," Fei greets Pierce before realizing Rina's condition. "Hurt again?"

Pierce shrugs. "Not sure. She appears to have eaten something that she shouldn't have."

Rina jostles around a bit. "I think I can go on on my own, thanks." Without objection, Pierce sets Rina on her legs. There is a bit of pain in her abdomen, but she ignores it. Harvey, Twitch, and Dorian approach the guild.

"I see you aren't alone here." Fei says. Harvey gives a smile and nods.

"Not much has happened today, but we did meet a strange blond man." Twitch says.

"Blond man? Haven't seen any besides Pierce." Fei says.

"Well, what's going on here?" Twitch asks.

Sprit rolls her shoulder. "We managed to sneak past that giant ass lizard. Unfortunately, the floor is full of them, so we walked back. Eventually we'll need to confront the one nearest to here if we ever want to survive here."

"No progress today?" Harvey asks

"Well, we did find some new things and discovered some new items. For once, nobody got hurt," Sprit smiles. "A niiiice big arrow right through the cuirass should do the job." Sprit says as she closes one eye and makes a motion with her fingers.

Al stands up. "We've been here for about an hour. What are we doing next?"

Fei answers, "Nowhere to go but back. We'll go through again tomorrow, but sooner or later, that lizard there will have to go."

Sprit nods her head at Fei and turns to Eridani. "You?"

Harvey looks to the sky. "We seem to be halfway through the afternoon. I guess we can call it a day. We'll join you again tomorrow," Harvey steps away and faces the stairs, which was a good hundred yards away. "Shall we get going?"

Fei happily nods. The ten explorers make their trek to the stairway when Twitch suddenly gets a weird sensation on his spine. "Hey, you hear that?" The other nine watch him curiously. Wordlessly, Twitch fires a single arrow into the trees. His shot was rather laid-back, firing crouched forward with his crossbow to his stomach. The arrow ruffles through the tree and a sharp cry is heard.

"The bloody hell was that?" Sprit angrily asks.

Rina brushes away one of the leaves off of her shoulder to find that it is metallic. Suddenly, a bulky green bird emerges from the tree and shrieks in their faces, leaving the five of them bewildered and unable to act. After a staring contest that lasted for what felt like hours, everyone scrambles and sprints to the stairway.

"Twitch! Why the hell did you do that!?" Harvey shouts.

"I'm sorry! I heard it and shot it in curiosity!"

The ten of them make the break for one hundred yards as a giant steel bird pursues them with its wings spread apart and its beak wide open, bellowing. Pierce occasionally screams random things while Sprit shouts insults at him and Twitch.

"Just a little more!" Fei shouts.

Al is beginning to lag behind. While the largebill is running terribly slowly, its size makes up for it, and Al is pretty much in its face. Rina and Fei reach the stairway first ad look back. The two immediately spot Al and recognize the situation. Dorian reaches the two. "What are you doing? Go!" She attempts to squeeze through the two.

Fei shakes her head. "Al is really far behind, we can't leave him here."

Dorian stops and looks back, finding the brunette farmer struggling to keep up. Thinking for a moment, she lights up and bounces. "I know what to do!" The sudden remark surprises Fei and Rina, and the princess takes two big steps forward, causing the running Harvey to sidestep a little and trip. Dorian points her sword at the struggling Al and focuses for a few seconds. After Zinovia passes her, Dorian gives a short shout and swings her sword upward as though she had just fired a gun. After giving a hearty laugh, she runs forward a bit more, brushing past Sprit and Carrick, and makes a loud victory cry, for some reason.

Harvey shouts, "What are you doing?"

Meanwhile, Al is beginning to realize his inability to keep running. The bird is much closer to him than before and his legs were becoming more and more sluggish with each yard. He looks ahead to see all of the others waiting for him near the staircase. Well actually, the princess is also still running away.

…

Except she is facing the wrong way.

And isn't running.

"D-Dorian! What are you doing?" He cries. Stumbling a bit, he trips and is gobbled up by the ave.

Dorian steps back, surprised. "Wah! Al, start struggling!" Dorian shouts.

Al doesn't hear this, but begins to thrash about anyway. Sensing the struggle, the bird attempts to bite down harder, but can't find itself doing so and hurts itself. After some beak pain, the bird falls back in pain and drops Al, who falls to the floor, slowly losing consciousness in fear.

"Dorian, what the hell are you doing!?" Harvey shouts.

Dorian rushes to Al's side and steadies herself, sword in hand, and faces the beast. "Have at you, monster!" The bird shrieks in her face. Dorian, unfazed, swings down on the bird's head. Unfortunately, the blade bounces off of its cranium and Dorian stumbles back, tripping over Al.

Al's arm is stepped on and he slowly begins to see the world again.

"QWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE E"

Al's eardrums are completely destroyed (he thinks), but his consciousness still continues restoration. It doesn't take long for him to realize his current situation. Over his head is a bird, and sitting next to him is a blond princess who looks hopeless.

"Get up, Al! You're near to invincible right now. I'll hold him off!"

Al stares at Dorian for a second and then hurries away to find his pitchfork. Dorian is not going to get killed in replace for him. Scuttling about, he picks up his pitchfork and rushes forward. The bird seems to be attempting to peck at Dorian.

"Dorian, I'm coming!" Al swings his pitchfork into the bird's side. The bird's steel feathers cause the pitchfork to come out of his hands. In frustration, the bird switches its attention to the farmer and whacks him across the head.

"Oh no! Al! Al! Al…." Losing consciousness.

* * *

Al…

Aleksandar…

Al…

"Al?! Al? Oh, Al! Guys! Guys!" The sound of a girl's voice, and then the sound of fading footsteps enters his ears. Al wakes up to find himself lying down in a bed. He appears to be in the sanatorium. Al sits up and feels an immense, but swift pain on the side of his head, causing him to stop moving any more. He sits there by himself for about half a minute before Dorian appears from the door, followed by Zinovia and Fei. The three of them are wearing casual clothing.

"So, you're up." Fei says.

Al looks out the window next to his bed. "How long was I out?" It is night, but the sun is still barely visible.

"Well, Dorian's been sitting next to you the entire time you were out." Fei explains. Dorian loops around Fei and looms over.

"I thought maybe I failed! The others came and rescued us, but if it weren't for me, you'd be bird food!" Dorian exclaims. "I saved your life!" Dorian is wearing a short sleeved white gown and her hair down. She doesn't look as majestic as usual, but she still doesn't look as povertish as the rest of her guild.

Al stares at her for a second before examining his hands. He looks completely fine save for the bandages around his head. "Thank you. I think I remember being gobbled up by the monster. For some reason, I'm completely fine."

Fei and Zinovia give Dorian a confused look. "Defense order," Dorian says. "Harvey told me to learn it, and then I set it on you so that the bird would have a hard time eating you. It worked! I also cried my magic battle cry to make you feel a little better while you were dead."

Al stares in awe. "So if it weren't for you, I would now be ripped body parts inside of a bird's stomach." Zinovia turns and leaves at this statement.

Dorian gives a conceited nod. Giving the recluse a snooty grin and wink, she stands up straight. "Yes sir. Now get some rest and feel better! I risked my life to save you. Don't waste my effort."

Al stares at Dorian, before a wide smile appears on his face as he nods in appreciation. "I will."

Fei smiles and leaves the room. Dorian takes the stool near her and takes a seat. "I'm not leaving until you go back to sleep, so close your eyes and sleep, boy."

The farmer breathes out a large breath and tucks himself in bed. "Where's my hat?"

Dorian laughs. "Carrick recovered it. He has it right now," Al shuffles a bit to get out, but Dorian pushes him back in. "I said I'm not leaving until you rest, so go to sleep."

The farmer gives an apathetic gaze and positions himself to be more comfortable. "A-alright." Al closes his eyes and after a few deep thoughts, loses his consciousness.

* * *

Al slowly opens his eyes to find it still dark. After feeling the inability to return to sleep, he gets up to find a certain 'princess' asleep on a stool next to him. Dorian is fast asleep on the stool that she had been on when he slept. Thing is, she's leaning against the wall and the lamp, which looks very uncomfortable. After thinking it over for a bit, Al stands up, feeling much better than when he was awake earlier, and attempts to pick up Dorian. After a bit of struggle, he gets a good hold of her and lays her down on the bed that he had previously been laying in. Satisfied, Al takes the stool that she had been sitting on and stares down at her. The farmer reaches out and takes off her tiara, then brushes off some of the hair over her face.

Which wakes her up.

Dorian's face wrinkles before she opens her eyes. "Wah…?" Her eyes open enough for her to see Al's face looming over her, causing her to shudder. "Ah!" Dorian sits up straight. "What do you think you're doing?" Al gives her a sheepish grin.

"I woke up to find you asleep. I thought we'd switch places. I can't sleep anyway."

Dorian furrows her brow. "Why did you take off my tiara, and why were you touching me?" Her face becomes a deep red. Al leans back in surprise.

"Hey! I was just making you more comfortable. Don't get any ideas!"

Dorian sits up and tidies herself. "I'm going to my room." Dorian jumps off, takes her tiara, and hurries off. Al watches her in wonder.

She is pretty attractive with her hair down.

* * *

I like to call this chapter the "Dorian and Al" chapter, since I put the focus on them for this chapter. For some reason, I realized the lack of dialogue coming from Dorian, and the initial and ideal personality of "brash and bold, but dimwitted" was disappearing in place of "quiet and dimwitted", which is almost the exact opposite of what I wanted. Al's large role in this chapter just became an idea of mine because of his quiet demeanor. Eventually, he'll become a prominent character. Also, I've come to realize Harvey's decreasing position as main character, as all of the members of Eridani are getting their limelight. After I'm satisfied with the showing of each character's personalities, Harvey will pretty much become **the** character of this story. No need to worry, all other characters will still get a lot of attention.

I've come to realize the increasing number of words per chapter. Whether that is a good or bad thing doesn't really matter to much to me, but it is noteworthy.

While I sort of have the direction of this story planned out, I usually don't plan my chapters when I write them. This is the first chapter that I planned out before writing, and writing it ended up being much easier than writing the other chapters. While some things were made up as I went (like Twitch's offering of a job and that last scene with Dorian and Al), the end result ended up much better than I wanted.

I know, not much happened in this chapter progress-in-the-labyrinth-wise, but I'm still satisfied with this chapter. Kujura's dialogue was used in the game, but I edited some of it to pertain to Harvey's comments.

I'm finished with all of Eridani's bios (for now). Next bio will be Fei's.


	6. Chapter 6: Trek, then Camp

Name: Fei Yen Gam

Class: Monk

Hair: Red

Eyes: Blue

Hometown: "The Valley near the River"

Age: 17

Charm Point: Face Bandage

A self-trained monk who fights with an unorthodox style. Fei Yen Gam moved to Armoroad with her father when she was very little. After her father was arrested for arson, she began to take many different jobs and learned to defend herself along the way. She forced herself into the Saturos guild (at the time, was just Carrick) and was given the title of guild leader (by herself). She takes the role of leader in open arms and cherishes it. She is rather playful, but that trait is usually clouded by her strong leadership.

Fei is terrified of fire and almost never commands Zinovia to use fire. In fact, she normally tells her not to.

* * *

Harvey finishes breakfast first as he watches the other four eat breakfast, this time not from Al. Most of Saturos is still sleeping. Fei is visible in the far corner of the room examining a slip of paper. Facing his attention to his guild mates, he gives the day's plans. "Today, we'll be sneaking past the lizard at the second floor entrance and continue from there. From what I have heard, there will be a light drizzle in the morning, but will pass very quickly. We will sit the morning out and proceed in the afternoon. With that being said, the conditions in the labyrinth should be slippery, it should provide a tough challenge, but that's what the Ariadne Thread is for."

Twitch gobbles down the last of his breakfast before standing up. "Harvey, I've got an errand to run," Twitch puts his goggles over his eyes, the first time Harvey has seen him do that, and heads to the door. "I'll be back before you know it."

Harvey watches him leave. "Hey Pierce, do you know what he's doing?"

Pierce shakes his head. "Nope. He hasn't said anything about errands to me."

Harvey watches Twitch's shape pass the wet window. "Hmm. Rina, are you feeling better?" Rina nods her head.

"I feel better, however," Rina's face turns into disgust. "That last symptom you told me yesterday took effect in the middle of the night."

"Eww." From Dorian.

Harvey nods. "Alright, well, if you have anything you planned on doing before, now's the time to do it," He switches from the dining table to the couch behind him. "If you need me, I'll be here."

Pierce thinks for a moment. "Harvey, will there ever be a time where we will need to spend the night _in_ the Labyrinth?"

"There are a few overly safe places in the Labyrinth that implore camping. I think that's first introduced in the second floor. From what I learned in the Bistro, the place is much safer at night because all those goddamned birds are asleep then."

"Are we still going to go there during the daytime?" Rina asks.

"Of course, we've got no time to waste. The daytime might be more dangerous, but that doesn't mean we can't go there then." Harvey replies.

"The terrain will be much more slippery once we get down there." Rina says.

"Hmm, you're right. Those birds will definitely get us in that event."

"Do we get another day off?" Pierce asks.

"Of course not, but safety is an issue here."

"We still have that Agnes Thread." Dorian says.

"Ariadne Thread, but that's true. If there is no way for us to survive, we can just use that," Harvey says. He stands up. "I'd suggest getting some rest. We won't be back here in this inn until tomorrow."

"So you're saying…" Pierce's voice trails off.

"Yup. We'll just have to eat what we find there."

"Ugh. If that's the case, I'm going to Gaius's Pockets." Pierce complains. He steps out the door, getting wet immediately, and storms off. Nobody stops him. Rina, taking Harvey's advice, returns to her quarters to rest. Dorian begins to eat everyone else's leftovers. Disgusted, Harvey pulls his hat over his eye and attempts to sleep.

* * *

Twitch approaches the bright eatery. Though not as bustling as usual, there are still people working inside. He isn't quite sure if Donatello is expecting him quite yet, or if he's even working, but he might as well give him these body parts while he's still alive. Twitch enters the bistro expecting to be greeted by Missy, but it seems she's busy tending to somebody else today. A blue haired man with a ponytail, who is rather loud. These adventurers he runs into in this restaurant are always strange. Twitch approaches the counter and calls the nearest chef over. "Hey, excuse me."

The chef approaches. She isn't all that tall. She has big green eyes and short, poofy burgundy hair that seems to conflict with the toque on her head. What caught Twitch's attention the most is the toque itself. Unlike the usual chef's cap, this one is light blue and is embroidered with festive lights. "Yes, sir?" Her voice is high. She probably isn't much older than Rina. In fact, she is most likely younger.

"Does Donatello happen to be here?"

The girl thinks to herself for a moment. Drifting off for almost a full minute, Twitch clears his throat. The chef, alarmed by Twitch, shakes her head and gives him a big smile. "I believe so, I'll come get him." The girl turns around rushes into a door. Twitch is rather surprised by the girl's position as a chef. She's younger than most of the other people he's met, but she's the only one with a real job. Considering the mature nature of this place, such a young girl shouldn't even be here, much less work. After a few minutes, Donatello appears from the door and grins at his presence.

"Twix! It's you! Glad to see you." Donatello's previous calm manner of speaking is replaced by an excited and glad one.

Twitch coughs. "Twitch," Twitch doesn't seem that hard of a name to remember that you'd say it wrong one day later. Clearing his throat, he continues. "Anyway, I got this for you," Twitch takes out the dismembered frog parts out of one of his many pouches and hands them over the counter. "Good luck getting that recipe into the menu."

Donatello's grin becomes even wider. 'Thanks so much. You have no idea how much this means to me. You see, my girlfriend is a former explorer of the Labyrinth in Lagaard," Twitch raises his eyebrows in surprise. "Unfortunately, another guild conquered the one there, so she came here in disappointment. Well, that's what she tells me. I've never met her guild mates before," Donatello begins to become red. "Then she met me, and somehow some short stuff like me became her boyfriend."

Twitch grins. "Wow, what sort of explorer is she?"

Donatello scratches his head. "I'm not quite sure. She uses this weird name to describe herself. Alchemist, I think it was. Anyway, she can direct all sorts of elements to attack. She's showed me a few times. Devastating, really."

The Arbalist leans in. "Really, now?"

The cook grins in pride. "You bet. She's stupidly pretty too. She doesn't say much, but she's a real knockout. She has short brown, almost black, hair, she wears ovular rimless glasses, and she's tall, taller than me anyway," Donatello scratches his head and blushes. "And I'm so close to being able to propose without fear of future struggle."

"What's her name?"

"Zaria. Zaria Nowik." Donatello states.

Twitch stands up. "Well, I've been here for a while, time for me to go. Don't want you to get in trouble."

Donatello stops him. "Wait! I haven't given you your payment yet." Donatello rushes through the door behind him. After waiting for almost ten minutes, the little chef reappears with three coupons in his fist.

"Wow, you really didn't have to. Just knowing that I really helped someone out is good enough for me." Twitch says.

"Of course not! Surely I can't be selfish and not make any sort of payment."

"Well, if you insist." Twitch takes the coupons.

"By the way, Za's got a sister who'd be interested in you. I'll be sure to tell Zaria about you next time I see her." The chef gives Twitch a smile. As Twitch reaches out his hand to shake, sunlight shines over the both of them. The rain had stopped.

"Well, that's my sign of leaving. Thanks for the coupons, and you're welcome." Twitch says.

"Good luck!" Donatello shouts.

Twitch exits the bistro and stares out at the sea. Life is good. For once.

* * *

Harvey is woken up by Dorian. "It's sunny already and the two boys aren't back." She says.

Harvey swats her away and gets up. "Hmm," Harvey looks at the window to find it no longer raining. "Where's Rina?"

Dorian's eyes drift to the hallway containing the living quarters. "She went to sleep. I'll have to wake her up. I told Fei that we were gonna go in later. She advised us not to, but I said that you already made your decision."

The buccaneer picks up his hat, which had fallen to the floor. ""Saturos is taking another day off?"

"She said it was too dangerous. Seems cowardly to me."

Harvey laughs softly. "Well, we'll have to prove to them that we're a guild that can function no matter the conditions. We also need to get ahead of them."

"Huh, weird. You're usually the one that plays it safe, and Fei always insists to take the risk. It's different today." Dorian muses.

"That episode with the giant bird must have switched our thoughts."

Dorian raises an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Her farmer nearly died, yet you're the reason he even lived. Methinks that those series of events made me confident in my team, but made her weary of hers," Harvey laughs, louder this time. "This truly is a competition, isn't it?"

The princess watches without saying a word.

"Hey! I'm back!" Pierce barges into the kitchen, almost knocking over one of the inn workers, and sets a giant bag of candy on the floor near the couch. The brigand and the 'noble' stare, dumbstruck.

"How the hell did you pay for this!?" Harvey shouts.

Pierce, unfazed, gives him a wide grin. "I used some great negotiating techniques and got all of this for 500en!"

"What was the original price?"

"575!"

Dorian whacks the vagabond across the head. "We already don't have money as it is!"

Pierce rubs the back of his head. "Ow, that hurt! This is for the foray, you know." Dorian kicks him in the stomach.

"Stop, Dorian. Pierce, what makes you think we can live off of sugar for a day and a half?"

Pierce makes a confused face. "We?" Dorian pummels him this time.

"What is this I'm hearing?" A tall man with curly brown hair appears behind Dorian. Carrick is wearing a normal white t-shirt and baggy purple pants. Upon seeing the current event, the hoplite's jaw drops in shock before laughing a little. "I thought only I get abused by women."

Dorian turns around. "You, shut up."

Carrick walks around her. "Sorry." The hoplite offers his hand for Pierce to get up, who takes it gratifyingly. He looks completely fine despite the recent blows to his body.

"I see you're up first." Pierce says.

"Yeah, well, I'm a light sleeper. I woke up a while ago, actually. The rain stopping sort of obligated me to come here, for some reason. Then I found a princess beating the living daylights out of you," Carrick looks back at the hallway behind him, rolling his shoulder. "It's almost 11; the others should wake up now. Judging by your attire, I can tell you're getting ready to go."

Harvey grins. "That's right. We'll be on the third floor before you know it."

Carrick gives him a friendly smile. "While this should be a downer on the others, I don't mind one bit." Dorian tilts her head in curiosity.

"Why not?"

"Free day. I am to not get paid for 7 days."

"I see." Dorian stares behind him to watch the hallway.

The door opens to reveal a dried up Twitch. "I'm back. What did I miss?"

* * *

After a series of 'good luck's and 'see you's to and from Saturos, the five members of Eridani have finally returned to the second floor of the labyrinth. Harvey takes off his cap. "It's pretty damp. That may or may not give us an advantage over those damned birds."

Pierce looks on ahead. "I bet that lizard is still there. I remember Sprit saying something about sneaking past the lizard. If we do that, we can definitely explore the farther parts of the floor."

Rina sees the giant reptile appear, and then turn around back to where it came from. "Watch." The other four give her a curious look as she silently hurries ahead to the giant lizard and tiptoes behind it. Her guild mates poke their heads from behind a tree. Harvey is visibly about to rip his hair out, while Dorian, Pierce, and Twitch stare in shock. Rina slightly smiles to herself as she follows the lizard. The lizard passes an open means of access, no doubt leading farther into the labyrinth. Seeing the opportunity, Rina takes the passage way as the lizard continues onto its route. Satisfied, the ninja motions for them to follow. Staring in shock for a few seconds, the other four follow suit. Dorian takes one last look at the lizard, which turns around, causing Dorian to jump and continue on her way.

"Do you think we'll have to do that every time we run into one of those things? There are supposed to be a lot of them." Harvey asks.

"If that is what it takes, so be it," Rina replies. After walking for a while, Rina motions for them to stop. "Wait, give me a second." Rina begins to inspect the strangely positioned log in a rock. After tinkering with it for a while, she removes it and crawls through the opening that she has made.

"Rina! This will be the third time you've run off on your own!" Harvey shouts as he follows her in. After following her for about ten seconds, they reach an opening. They're back to where they were before!

"I understand that my previous independent actions were, er, unbeneficial to the guild, but please trust my judgment a bit more often." Rina states.

Harvey, impressed, gives a hearty laugh before feeling a tug on his calf. Pierce's arm was trying to make him move from inside the crevice, most likely being followed by Twitch and Dorian. "You know what, Rina? I will. Just," Harvey's smile shrinks. "Just tell me what you're going to do before you do it."

Rina nods. "Will do."

Harvey helps the three of them out. Dorian's eyes widen and her jaw drops. "Wait, this is where we started, what was the point of that?"

Twitch gives a look of surprised approval. "Huh, good job, Rina. This completely solves the problem we had a hard time thinking a solution to."

Harvey nods. 'Yes, yes, now back through there." Harvey shoos them back into the crevice. Pierce brightens up.

"Wait, ladies first." Pierce appreciatively motions the two to go in first.

Twitch immediately sees what he is getting at and smacks him across the back of the head. "No."

The five vagabonds continue their trek through the labyrinth, picking up some materials and fighting a few monsters along the way, also paralyzing a largebill that they proceeded to run away from. Dorian suggested singing war songs to increase vitality, which confused Harvey at first. Dorian then proceeded to sing, albeit loudly, while they marched. Harvey noticed a sudden refreshed feeling and was quite appreciative of Dorian's ability, but advised her not to do it unless needed. Dorian sung so loudly that Harvey could sometimes hear other explorers asking what the hell was going on. Now, the sun is beginning to set, and the moist floor almost feels as though it was never even dampened. Eventually, the number of largebills decreased and things started to become quiet.

Pierce gives a small cry. "I'm famished. Do we have anything to eat?"

Harvey realizes the slowly lacking energy. "We have enough materials here to make food," Twitch thinks back to Donatello. "There should be a campsite soon, we can make food there."

Dorian's stomach grumbles. "I'm beginning to have quite enough of this. Let's go!" The princess runs ahead. "Hey! There's another one of those lizards!"

Pierce gives a long whine. "Aww come on! Do we have to figure out how to sneak past this one?"

Rina studies it for a moment. "Actually, no." Rina grabs Harvey and Twitch and runs along, Pierce and Dorian following in full pursuit. The five of them are running straight towards the lizard.

"Rina, you sure you know what you're doing?" Harvey asks. Rina seems like she has a plan, but they're getting closer to the lizard and Harvey can't quite tell what she is doing.

"There." Rina suddenly turns, just barely avoiding touching the lizard, and ends at a clearing. Pierce and Dorian stumble and run clumsily as they reach the three's destination.

"Wow. If there's anything I can say, I'm glad to have you on this guild, Rina." Harvey states. Rina merely nods. How old is she supposed to be again? Whatever her age is, she sure acts much older.

The five take care of a group of mushrooms awaiting them, and proceed to find a fork in the road. The four look to Harvey to make a decision until a strange purple haired girl wearing a cloak approaches them, smiling.

"Hello, it's nice to meet you. You must be explorers from Armoroad," She cheerily says. Harvey ponders telling them that none of them hail from Armoroad, but decides against it. "You needn't be frightened. My name is Olympia. I am active in helping explorers like you." Her smile disappears for a second, and she hands Harvey a backpack.

"May I ask what this is you are giving me?" Harvey asks.

The girl closes her eyes and nods, as though she's heard this many times before. "This is a camping tent. It is practically a necessity here. You may have it if you like."

Harvey stares at the backpack for a moment before nodding appreciatively. "My gratitude. I'll be sure to use this when the time comes." Harvey already had a few prepared, but the ones he has are not very well made. In fact, they aren't very big either.

Olympia points across to the right portion of the road. "That way lies a campground, a safe place to use your tent," Harvey nods to indicate that he is listening. "Many explorers use tents to rest during their travels. You should make use of that spot as well." The girl turns around to leave.

"I will rest at the campground myself for a while. If you would like to talk more, come see me." The girl says nothing else as she begins walking. After just looking at each other for a minute, Eridani follows her into the campground, which is guarded by a large door.

* * *

The campground itself isn't very large, but there were quite a few guilds staying there. They all have identical tents, but the tents all have different crude paintings of what seems like guild logos. There were four in all: the "Pale Horse" guild, the "Textbook" guild, the "Supreme" guild, and the "Chrome Root" guild. Harvey grunts. Probably a bunch of teenagers.

"It seems this is it for today. Let's set up camp in that open space over there and get some rest."

* * *

Twitch and Pierce are given the job of setting up the tent. The tent is much larger than originally predicted, and the two "Rad City" natives are having a tough time building it up.

"Okay, we've been staring at this for five minutes. Should we just set it up based on our own judgment?" Twitch suggests.

"Yeah, at this point we might as well just do what we think works."

Two minutes later the tent already looks like a mess.

"Pierce, that's the base of the tent."

"Twitch, can you pick that up for me? I'm kinda stuck in this position."

"Wait, stop, I'm pretty sure that's wrong."

"What the hell is this for?"

"People are looking at us weird, should we stop?"

"Alright, this looks correct, but everything else looks like trash."

"Hmm. That doesn't look correct."

"Hahaha! What the hell did..? Twitch, check this out!"

"Wait, I got it. This goes here... but then everything else goes nowhere."

"Okay, I've had enough. I'm going to ask someone for advice." Pierce gets up and asks the nearest adventurer. The gladiator escorts the guy to the mussed tent and waits for him to do something.

"This goes here, and that goes there. Everything else is completely fine." The man says. After doing what he told, the tent looks just like everyone else's, save for a few holes caused by the failed set up. Twitch could spy a girl holding back some laughter near one of the other tents.

Twitch scratches his head. "Gee, thanks for the help."

"No problem." The man turns around and walks into the tent labeled "Chrome Root".

Pierce lightly elbows Twitch. "I'm gonna go ask Harvey for food." Pierce runs off, leaving Twitch in front of the empty tent. Dorian and Rina appear from almost nowhere holding cold beverages. Where did those come from?

* * *

Harvey is taking a walk along the campground, passing interesting looking people, including a bald man with a long mustache, a very young looking girl with a two-handed sword strapped to her back, and a young man wearing a hyena. As Harvey passes the tent labeled "Supreme", a young man with a blue pony tail walks out and bumps into him.

"Hey, watch where you're going!" The man says. The man looks up to see Harvey's intimidating face and immediately falls silent. "Oh, I'm sorry. That was my bad."

Harvey nods. "Apology accepted," The buccaneer notices a sudden shine gleaming from his chest. There is a familiar seashell necklace hanging from his neck. "That necklace of yours…"

The young man steps back. His fear is completely replaced by a look of determination. "It's nobody's. This is from someone more important than anyone I know," Alarmed, the blue haired man takes a harder look at Harvey's face. "Wait…"

Harvey remains where he is.

"Mr. Harvey…" The young man's voice drifts off. Shaking his head, his voice regains volume. "I don't want to talk to you right now. I hope you wish not to talk to me." The man walks off hurriedly. Harvey doesn't watch him leave and is about to continue his way when Pierce appears.

"Hey Harvey. Got anything we can eat?"

Harvey takes a while to register his question before answering. "Yup. After going through some of the things we got in this last adventure, we definitely have the ingredients to make something good."

Pierce bounces. "Perfect!' The two hike back to the tent. Pierce would ramble on and ask Harvey some random things, some relevant, some not. Harvey would answer in no more than a "Yeah", or "No". The entire way back Harvey had a hard time taking his mind off of that boy's, now a man's necklace while fighting back a sensation of sorrow and unwilling to let it show in his voice. He is the guild leader, after all, he can't show weakness like this.

* * *

Not too happy with this chapter. I may have (finally) progressed, but some things seem a bit rushed here and there. This chapter is also one of my shortest. Rina's independent leading of the guild was planned, but for some reason it seems so rushed to me. Due to Harvey's plans, Saturos won't be appearing at all next chapter, which is new. The next chapter should be long, as the group will reach the third floor then (that's right). Sprit, Carrick, and Zinovia all have distinguished personalities already, but they haven't been shown to their fullest degrees yet. Since those characters are tertiary, I will only work on that when the time calls for it.

Olympia appeared on this chapter. I won't tell which path I'm taking in this story, but it will be entirely Harvey making the decision. I will also regard the sailing option in the chapter. Sea exploration will not play a role in this story, mind you.

I listened to Nas's albums "Nastradamus" and "God's Son" while writing this. While listening didn't help with how much I wrote, it gave me ideas of certain things. "Project Windows" and "Revolutionary Warfare" are definite favorites of mine. "Woo Hah! Got you all in Check" by Busta Rhymes helped me write Dorian's pummeling of Pierce and the setting up tent parts of this chapter.

That final part in this chapter with Harvey may seem strange, but it will be relevant. That blue haired man with the ponytail will appear again soon, but not in a while. The backstory I have planned for Harvey is definitely my favorite out of all of the other backstories of other characters I have.

Also, I'd like to thank MagicMissile for actually reviewing this thing. While it may not seem much, those reviews are actually helping me write and they also give me motivation to write more and quicker. Next bio will be Al's. Like Harvey, his bio is altered a bit from what I previously planned. Al and Harvey are going to be the two "big" characters of this story. Exciting.


	7. Chapter 7: We March and Sing Very Loudly

Name: Aleksandar "Al" Nemtsov

Class: Farmer

Hair: Brown

Eyes: Hazel

Hometown: "Wagner"

Age: "20"

Charm Point: Big Hat

An expert in botany and great at knowing signs of danger. Aleksandar was recruited to the Saturos Guild after warning the original five members (one has since left) of an oncoming assailant. Al has since become invaluable to the guild's cause. He claims to be twenty years old, but all of the other four members of the guild don't take his word for it. He's got quite a bit of a predicament, but he doesn't seem to be willing to share. He has quite a talent for sneaking.

His hat is stolen. He once had to take refuge in a thieves' base for a week, leaving with a large blue hat. Said thieves did not know that he was even there. He does not know his real age, twenty is his own estimate.

* * *

Harvey rests, but does not sleep. Stupid chair has uneven leg lengths. 10 pm is approaching, which is when they're supposed to go back out. Strangely, the second floor of the forest is much safer at night. The largebills become dormant at dusk. Harvey can't quite remember what it is that replaces them, but they definitely can't be as terrifying and lethal. Impatient, the buccaneer looks around the tent once more. Dorian pestered Harvey to bring in a makeshift screen to cover Rina and Dorian. The screen, which is the opened and outstretched bag that Pierce filled with candy, works surprisingly well, going from the back wall of the tent to about a foot in front of the entrance. It smells of chocolate, which extends across the tent, much thanks to Pierce. What happened to its contents? Harvey isn't quite sure, but he has a good idea that he doesn't want to confirm. A draft comes through and causes the buccaneer to shiver. The two other men in his guild failed to correctly set up the tent without the help of another, causing a few holes in the tent walls. Harvey learned a few hours ago that Twitch knew quite a life of gambling. One of his pockets contained four differently colored dice and a deck of cards. Twitch had won quite a profit of En against some of the other adventurers. He had been accused of cheating a few times due to the dice being his, but in the end, most of Twitch's winnings had come from the games of poker. A few fights had broken out as well, causing Twitch to stop. A young woman with golden brown hair had done a good job breaking the fights, much to Harvey's impression. No real violence occurred, to Harvey's surprise. Harvey checks his wristwatch (it's his first time actually using/wearing this thing). 9:48 pm. It was about two and a half hours ago that they had begun resting. Some adventurers are still outside talking. It doesn't seem like idle chitchat. Some guilds are probably making some last assurances before retiring for the night. Harvey stares at Twitch and Pierce, who are on the floor, asleep. Twitch appears much taller than Harvey had first mused. Twitch is just what Harvey expected from the oldest guild member (aside from himself). Tall, calm, handsome, mature, poised. Of course, he still has some of Pierce's japing traits, but all in all, Twitch is an overly nice guy that you can count on. That might become his own undoing eventually. Pierce, on the other hand, is almost the complete opposite. Short, brisk, juvenile, and pedantic, he is the polar opposite of Twitch, sharing only the 'nice guy' part of his personality. On the battlefield, the gladiator isn't very careful, but never seems to need to. Whenever he did get hurt, it was usually only minor and easily ignored. Harvey hasn't even known these kids for a week and it already feels like he has a new family. New…

Harvey dozes off for a little bit and wakes up a little later than he'd wanted, cursing himself for being careless. He checks his watch. 10:12 pm. No matter. Time to wake them up. The buccaneer stands up and calls out, hoping not to wake up everyone else outside the tent. "You four, resting time is up, it's time for us to go back out." Nobody moved, although he could hear a bit of shuffling from the other side of the screen. Hoping that it was Rina getting up and not Dorian ignoring him, Harvey lightly kicks at Pierce's feet. After getting no response, Harvey stomps on it.

"Augh! Huuza?" Pierce wakes up with a start, sitting up and looking both directions, and up, for some reason.

"It's a little over ten, time to go." Harvey says. Pierce frowns.

"Already? Didn't feel that long," Pierce yawns. "Well, if it's time, it's time." The boy wobbles to the corner of the tent to obtain his sword, his scarf, and other thinks that he'll need. Walking over to Twitch, the arbalist shuffles and opens his eyes before Harvey does anything. Twitch gets up and nods, without saying anything. The tall 23 year-old immediately nods and begins to get ready.

"What time is it?" He asks.

"It's around ten o'clock. We should be at the third floor by the afternoon."

"So you're saying that we'll be adventuring for over 12 hours?"

"Depends on our health status. If the best happens, we will be on the third floor."

Twitch doesn't respond, but Pierce does. "Wow. Should be fun. Wait until Saturos finds out."

Harvey happily nods and turns around to face the screen. "You two, time to get up."

There is a muffled squeak from the other side of the screen. After a bit of waiting, Dorian's head appears on the side of the screen, peeking in. "What do you mean?" She asks.

Harvey looks past her head to find someone looking through a hole in the tent entrance flaps, immediately disappearing when Harvey eyes them. Huh, a peeping tom? A spy? "We're going out. Get ready." Rina's head appears behind Dorian's.

"What's the plan?"

"We go out, kill beasts, and reach the third floor." Harvey says.

Rina shrugs and disappears behind the screen again.

Twitch retrieves the guild's salvaging bag and takes a look inside. Twitch examines it for a moment and wonders what Donatello has been up to. Maybe he was drifting off for a little too long, as everyone is calling his name in front of the tent. Shaking off his thoughts, he smiles and follows them.

As soon as they leave camp, things become quiet. Nobody has anything to say. They continue down the long pathway leading forward.

Soon enough, they reach another fork; one leading to another pathway, the other a door. The door is just as pompous as the one guarding the campsite. This one seems much more unwelcoming and almost out of place. Without warning, Dorian walks forward and attempts to open it. "It won't budge."

Harvey studies the door for a moment. "I don't think we'll be able to open this thing. Luckily for us, it's probably unexplored territory. Let's forget about this and go this way now." Harvey turns around to find a gigantic centipede staring at him in curiosity. Harvey stares him down, or up.

The four other members of Eridani watch, terrified. "Harvey," Pierce says quietly. "Any orders?"

Harvey decides against fighting. Perhaps this gigapede is docile? The gigapede suddenly shrieks and headbutts Harvey over Dorian's head and against the door. Maybe it isn't.

"H-Harvey!" Dorian shouts. Harvey recovers in a flash and waves Dorian off.

"So this replaces the birds? Shouldn't be a problem," Harvey wipes dirt off of his jaw and takes out his cutlass. "Offense!" Harvey calls. Pierce and Rina run forward and put their full offensive on the bug. Twitch watches the monster closely before pulling something out of one of his pockets.

"Twitch. What is that?" Harvey shouts. Twitch merely smiles at him and tosses the mysterious object in the direction of the gigapede. Twitch's expression suddenly transforms into one of shock. Pierce and Rina are ransacking the gigapede while the object is rolling towards the gigapede.

Suddenly there is smoke everywhere.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!" Twitch is suddenly in a frenzy. Rina, Pierce, and the gigapede are inside the cloud of smoke. Nothing the other three can do now. "I'm sorry!"

Harvey doesn't reply and waits for something to happen. Pierce and Rina are suddenly flung out of opposite sides of the smoke, landing on their sides. The gigapede most likely flailed its head about in desperation and knocked Pierce and Rina out of the smog. The two seem to be completely fine and stand up with no problem. The two are bothered by the smoke, but don't seem to be too curious as to where it had come from. Suddenly, the gigapede emerges and goes for the legs. Twitch is taken by surprise, and is left on the floor gripping his crossbow. The gigapede rampages, knocking Pierce and Dorian away. With the intent to kill, the gigapede increases speed on its assault to Harvey. Harvey doesn't run away, but instead readies himself. Rina, while deciding to trust Harvey's judgment, is rather distraught over his decision to take the gigapede.

The gigapede is approaching Harvey. With just his raw determination and cutlass in two hands set in front of him, the buccaneer times his jump. One, two, three! Harvey leaps and brings the sword below him. The cutlass drives through the gigapede's head, the speed of the gigapede causing the blade to cut through the exoskeleton of the massive bug. The gigapede keeps running forward and the cutlass eventually cleaves it clean in half, leaving two symmetrical halves of a long bug carcass on the floor. Harvey finally lands. The bug was moving so fast that he jumped straight over it. Harvey turns around to look at his kill. "Huh."

Twitch makes a short laugh and gets up to reinsert an arrow back into the giant quiver underneath his crossbow. Pierce and Dorian's previously worried faces change into expressions of glee and surprise. Rina merely blinks a few times and smiles. "I should stop calling myself old." The leader chuckles.

* * *

The five explorers of unknown history trod along the midnight labyrinth, battling savage beasts, collecting raw resources, opening unfound treasure chests, stealthily evading giant lizards, meeting a flustered young woman looking for her ninja guild mate, and unveiling some shortcuts back to the stairs, all while Dorian ear-piercingly sings historic war songs that the other four have never heard in their lives. Nevertheless, the members of Eridani are well off, suffering only a few minor wounds that have been tended to. The sky is slowly getting brighter, the moon well past the treeline. The sun has not yet appeared, so the adventurers are walking along a treacherous yet beautiful labyrinth under a cloudless indigo canvas, a very slight rainbow visible in the atmosphere. Pierce and Twitch are passionately telling Dorian and Rina a story, who are both (Rina seems to be in a friendly state) listening intently. They are definitely wide awake now, Harvey muses. Harvey opens a door to reveal a closed area, a few large mushrooms, about the size of Twitch's head, including the afro, sitting in the middle.

"Nope."

Harvey turns back around, the other four following, leaving quite a few bored and confused Venom Shrooms waiting behind.

* * *

The Eridani Guild finally reaches the stairs leading down. Harvey, content with his cartography, gives the four a halt signal. It is well into the morning. Rina has cut enough shortcuts for them to easily reach this area again. "Let's rest up here for a moment." Harvey suggests. He takes off his hat and sits on the grass, examining the cloudless sky. It wasn't raining hard, but it was raining quite steadily yesterday. It's a wonder how the sky could look so beautiful now. The labyrinth seems much more beautiful now after spending time in the dark. Harvey watches as Twitch sets his crossbow on the floor and stretches his arms, laughing a little to a comment Dorian makes about Sprit. That young man has quite a happy head on him. That optimism will be needed in the future. Harvey was the last one recruited and somehow became guild leader. Maybe a message from them telling him that he is old. Bah, whatever. Harvey confronted them that night because he was bored. Naïve teenage tourists are always a sight to behold, but these four are different. As much as Harvey hates teenagers, these four reinvigorated a sense of happiness that he hasn't felt in a long time. After sitting there for about ten minutes, Harvey ups to go down the stairs when suddenly a little boar appears in front of him. The boar looks up at him curiously, which causes Harvey to crouch down and examine it. The swine isn't actually looking at him, but to Pierce behind him. Pierce's voice starts.

"Hey, that's-"

"Festus!"

Harvey turns around to see a tan young man with blue tribal clothing rushing to the boar. The boar jumps and turns around, but the man dives and catches him. After struggling a bit, the man sinks into the grass, lays there for a second, and gets up. The boar is gone. "My apologies. Festus tends to get excited and runs ahead of us often." The man says. His eyes aren't visible beneath the large mask resting on his head.

"Hey!" Pierce waves a hand at the man.

The man gives Pierce a confused look for a second before smiling. "Ah yes, Pierce was it? Fancy meeting you here."

"Same to you," Pierce places his thumb on his lip and thinks. "What was your name again?"

"My name is T'skila. Sorry for leaving you before, I was looking for someone." T'skila explains. He acknowledges the other four with nods.

"When did you two meet, Pierce?" Twitch asks

Pierce gives Twitch a smile. "At the candy superstore. His boar knocked the wind out of me and caused Dorian to find me."

"Once again, I apologize for that." T'skila says.

"No worries." Pierce says. Behind Twitch are four strange adventurers. There is a girl with green hair, a very high cut tank top, and a sinister looking shield and mace combo. The girl herself doesn't look very sinister at all. There is also a large man with black hair, slicked back and face adorned with prominent sideburns. Beside him is a young man with a black pony tail and a mask concealing his nose down. His red scarf seems kinda long. Then behind him is a young boy with blond hair and a crown. He appears to be a noble. Maybe he is false like Dorian. Harvey can't tell just yet.

"T'skila. Can't you inform us whenever you run off? You scared us there." The large man says with a deep baritone voice.

"Ahhh. Man I'm tired. I tripped on a guy who was hiding from something on the way here." The red scarf says.

The girl calmly walks over to T'skila and appears to say something, but Harvey can't hear it. The two continue their whispering for a while until T'skila turns to the Eridani Guild.

"We are the Tyrant Guild. We were supposed to complete a quest given to us in the Butterfly Bistro, but Festus ran off. The boar looks as though it has found its way to you." T'skila explains "We have been to the second stratum."

Harvey raises his eyebrows. "Is that so? Well then, we should leave you be. We have a third floor to explore." Harvey turns around, but a hand grabs his shoulder. Pierce gives him a stern look over his shoulder.

"Wait, I want to know who these people are first."

Harvey stares for a second before sighing. "Fine," Harvey straightens his back and stands up straight. "My name is Harvey. I am the leader of the Eridani Guild. That is Pierce, as you know, T'skila. That tall man is Twitch, the blonde girl next to him is Dorian. Finally, the girl in the pink robe is Rina. A pleasure to meet you." Harvey says that last part with little enthusiasm.

"My name is Shouta Noguchi. Pleased to meet you fellows." The red scarf boy says. He lowers his mask, revealing nothing out of the ordinary.

"I am Orion the Paladin. Righteous." The large sideburns man says.

"That's quite a name you have there." Twitch comments.

"I know, right? I paid fifteen thous-I mean," Orion cuts himself off. "I earned the nickname for myself."

Twitch stares. "Uh huh."

The five wait for the last two to speak. They don't, so T'skila introduces them.

"That young boy is Serge. He is a Prince of the kingdom of Sperinn. At first I was a bit unsure to believe a lone 12 year old boy can be a prince, but…" T'skila's voice trails off. "Anyhow, this lass here," T'skila motions to the girl beside him. "Is Ocella." Ocella acknowledges them, but doesn't make a sound. Her facial expression shows a bit of distrust towards the Eridani Guild, but no hostility.

Harvey nods. "Very well, then. If you don't mind, we'll be advancing."

T'skila smiles. "Yes, yes. I will leave you to it. Good luck." Harvey turns around and departs, the other four trailing behind him. Ocella approaches the wildling.

"Why do they interest you so much?"

The wildling shakes his head. "I am not sure, but there is something about them that I cannot ignore. I can only wonder what it is."

"Do you think we'll be seeing them again soon?"

T'skila straightens the mask over his head. "I have no doubts. We should get going. This quest of ours is still unfinished."

* * *

Harvey arrives at the third floor first. The sound of running water could be heard. Not just that, but Harvey could almost feel a slight mist against his face. The other four appear behind him and smiles appear on their faces. They've been exploring for 12 hours and running on a few hours of sleep, how were they still full of energy?

"I'm getting tired. How about you guys?" Harvey asks.

Pierce stretches and rolls his neck. "Old. Come on, we're here. We should tough it out a bit more. You can handle it, can't you?"

Harvey grunts and stares him down. "S-sorry."

"We'll continue until we reach the first fork. Then we'll turn around and go back to the inn. I'd suggest you all get sleep once we get there." Harvey commands.

Twitch yawns. "I don't know Pierce. I'm kinda tired. I hope this fork isn't too far."

The members of Eridani advance into the labyrinth, walking along a river. The five begin their all too familiar idle chitchat until Harvey spots something in the middle of the road.

"Stop. Look at that."

There are monsters tearing at a backpack, devouring everything inside. As soon as those behind him had halted, the monsters looked up from their treasure and struck them with hard stares.

"Another stare down?"

Those frogs are big. Harvey has never seen any like them. Not only that, but they are pink. Whatever other features they have, Harvey can't tell, because they suddenly leap into the air and attempt to pounce on them. Rina is fast enough to actually stop one of them and commence a real fight. However, Dorian is left fleeing from a bouncing frog as a result. While it looks comical, it is incredibly dangerous.

"I'll just deal with the one we have now." Harvey murmurs to himself. The buccaneer unsheathes his cutlass and charges forward, but stops. Something stupid or spectacular must have happened, because the frog is suddenly motionless on the floor, and Harvey must be more than ten yards away from the cadaver. Skidding to a halt, Harvey whirls around to pay attention to Dorian, who has received help from Pierce. While Pierce clashes with the giant pink frog, Harvey spots two clawed shrimp approaching in the distance.

"Twitch! Dispatch those two shrimp in the distance!" With a simple nod, Twitch places his goggles over his eyes and sidesteps backwards, stopping about a foot away from the river. He loads an arrow into his crossbow and steadies it ahead of him.

"Two targets. I can hit both of them with one." Twitch whispers. Firmly setting his feet on the ground, Twitch stands completely still for almost ten seconds. At the correct moment, he fires an arrow. The shot swoops past Harvey's head and impales a shrimp. The flint sticking out of the back of the shrimp makes a cut on the other, causing it to soar awkwardly. Pierce, in an attempt to block an attack from the frog, raises his shield, striking the shrimp and causing it to land next to Twitch. The arbalist chuckles to himself and kicks it into the river. Dorian, no longer running, is sitting on the floor regaining breath.

Pierce is having a bit of trouble with the giant pink amphibian. Where are Harvey and Rina? Dorian should be helping him out too at this point. After blocking and missing the frog, the monster smacks Pierce with its… tongue? In the blink of an eye, Pierce is on the floor with a big red mark on his cheek.

"Pierce, I got it." A girl's voice. Probably Rina, since she always seems to appear whenever he is in trouble. All he sees is grass, but he can still hear clearly, and that useful sense allows him to hear the sounds of something being cut, and a few sounds of metal hitting metal, a sharp gasp, and then a small scream. Then, Rina's foot appears in front of his face for a second before jolting back where it was before. A bit more enduring pain on his cheek, and there is a pink blob covering most of his field of village. Attempting to ignore the pain in his cheek, Pierce rolls over and looks up. The cloudless sky makes the sun overpower his eyes, causing him to close them immediately. Under his closed eyelids, the feel of heat begins to leave, giving him back the strength to open his eyes. A relatively battered brunette in a pink robe is staring down at him, blocking out the sun, waving her palm near his face. Upon seeing his eyes open, the girls smiles and offers her hands, which he takes. Pierce brushes himself off and rubs his cheek, which is still in pain.

"Did we win?" Pierce asks.

Rina sighs. "No, I won." She doesn't seem to be in the best shape. A few bruises, cuts, and specks of dirt cover her. Despite all of this, the Kitsune mask resting on her head is completely unharmed and untainted. Her posture remains proper as well.

"Nobody helped you?"

Rina grunts. "Harvey insisted that I deal with the thing myself."

"Why?"

"Not sure. He did the same thing with Dorian on our first embarking, remember? That is actually why nobody was helping you there. Harvey ordered us to halt and let you fight. Taking Twitch's battle style into consideration, I don't believe he'll be doing the same thing. I will assume "

Pierce flinches and rubs his cheek. "Ahh… Wonderful. I'll have to ask him why he does that."

Harvey jogs over to them and greets them. "You two alright? That was quite a valiant effort you two put up there." Differing from the other two, Harvey looks completely fine save for the bags under his eyes.

Pierce frowns. "If we had just fought together, none of us would have gotten hurt."

Harvey frowns right back at him. "Well, in that case…" Harvey's eyes wander to the pathway leading to the stairs. "We shall head back to the inn to get you two treated."

"That's that?"

"That's that."

Thus, after almost twenty-four long hours, the Eridani guild returns to the inn. Due to all of the lizards walking around (and the large bills luring the area), the guild agrees to use the Ariadne Thread, which teleports them back to the entrance of the labyrinth. They had warped right next to a novice guild, scaring them out of their skin. Walking back to the inn, the five begin their idle chitchat, causing Rina and Pierce to forget about their mild wounds.

"So, Pierce," Harvey begins. "What's up with T'skila?"

Pierce raises an eyebrow. "Hmm? I think he's a pretty cool guy. Something about him makes me feel, er, relaxed, I guess?"

"You trust people too easily."

"What makes you say that?"

Harvey shrugs. "Twitch has a knack for being overly trustful of people. That seems to be rubbing off on you. Sorry, Twitch." Twitch doesn't really take offense to this, although his overly trustful nature has gotten him in trouble a few times in the past.

"That guy looked kinda shady. His subordinates looked really suspicious too." Dorian comments.

"Explorers tend to be good people. I can usually tell a good soul from a dirty one."

"Well let me tell you, good first impressions get people far. Don't trust people so quickly."

Pierce shrugs. "Whatever you say."

* * *

Rina and Pierce get treated immediately upon return, though Rina insists on letting time and a nice bath do the healing for her. Harvey has other thoughts. Better safe than sorry. The guild entered the inn expecting to be greeted, but Saturos was already gone.

"Great job this session, everybody," Harvey exclaims. "Use the rest of the day however you like."

The four look at each other for a second, and then scram in different directions.

* * *

Harvey puts on his hat and vest.

"Going out?" Fei asks.

The guild had spent the afternoon doing different things. Rina disappeared and returned four hours after disappearance. Harvey has to ask her what she does to spend the time some time soon. It would be best if he knew her whereabouts every second of the day. Dorian cleaned her room (because Harvey suggested so, which came out as a demand to her). Twitch visited the Bistro to check on Donatello, who is not present. Missy told him that he is off today. Perhaps he is popping the question this very moment. Since the little chef wasn't present, Twitch and Pierce spent the afternoon strolling along the beach. Harvey went to sleep. Much needed sleep. It didn't take him very long to shut the lights.

At this very moment, the buccaneer is planning on taking a walk. "Yeah, I've got something to do."

"Alright, then. Good night." Fei turns around and leaves Harvey. The man has some questioning to do. Who are the Supreme Guild? How far in are they?

Where has Simao Tiago been for the past two years?

* * *

Well, my spring break is finished, and school takes over again. Not only that, but being creative about and describing Labyrinth exploration is hard. While I believe I pulled through with the creativity, I spent a lot of time editing the event descriptions, most notably walking and fighting. Playing Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Fire Emblem's fan translation also took up quite a bit of my time.

This is, so far, the chapter with the most story progress so far in this story. It isn't much, but it got the job done. The absence of Saturos made this chapter feel... different. The Guild was finally alone again and I got to express their trust for one another (or rather, their trust for Harvey). I also forgot to mention sea exploration. I'll expand upon that next chapter. (I should stop making promises, I sometimes don't pull through).

Don't worry about that last part yet. Harvey has his own problems that don't concern the other guild members. I'm excited for the time when I finally get to explain Harvey's background. Will be fun.

I didn't really try anything different while writing this chapter. I did spend a lot of time eating grapes and apples during writing, though.

Al's first bio has appeared this chapter. Eventually, another chapter will contain a different Al bio. Next bio is Sprit's. Speaking of her, she's fun to write. I should include her more often.


	8. Chapter 8: False Assumptions

Name: Sprit Powell

Class: Arbalist

Hair: Brown

Eyes: Green

Hometown: "Winterdune"

Age: 16

Charm Point: Accent

Formerly training to be a Labyrinth Guard, Sprit was dismissed for being uncooperative and, after three years without any physical development, was found to be lying about her age. Looking for work, she was recruited into the Saturos Guild. She shows disrespect towards the Senatus, dubbing it a "selfish, egotistical, slave driver". Her guild-mates see her opinion on the Senatus as biased. She carries a strong Oceania accent.

She has a passion for fishing, but does not like the taste of most fish. She is also a great swimmer.

* * *

Harvey decides to get up a little bit earlier than everyone else. There is singing behind the wall again. Sooner or later Harvey will have to find out what Twitch is doing behind there. It sounds like he's singing something meant to be sung by a whole choir. Harvey slips out of bed and changes. The shortcuts that Rina created should have them in the third floor in the blink of an eye. Of course, they'd need to stock up on Ariadne Threads again since they'd be too far into the labyrinth to just turn around and leave. Walking down the hallway, the rooms behind each door he passes are quiet.

One room that Harvey passes becomes very loud all of a sudden, causing the man to flinch. Curious, Harvey knocks on the door.

"Hey, is everything alright in there?" After hearing no response, Harvey knocks a few more times. No answer. After thinking it over a bit, the man opens the door.

"Wait!"

The door suddenly slams into Harvey's face and sends him backwards and on his rear. Staying in that position for a moment, the door opens to reveal Rina, clad in nightwear, giving him an unamused look.

"Did you need anything?" Rina asks.

Harvey clears his throat and stands up. "No, but," Harvey scratches his nose. "There was a sudden racket coming from behind your door. Is everything alright?"

Rina gives him a curious look before shaking her head. "Please don't worry. I have everything under control."

"Are you sure? That was pretty loud."

"Please, I assure you there's absolutely nothing to be concerned for."

The man nods doubtedly. "Okay, then. I'll let you sleep." Rina smiles and returns to bed, shutting the door behind her. Rina seems to be up to a lot of things that Harvey isn't aware of.

* * *

Nine young (and one middle-aged) explorers are gathered around a dining table having breakfast. Though newly introduced, having only known each other for about a week, the ten have a strange chemistry that should not exist so quickly. The brown haired farmer has not touched his food.

"Anything botherin' you there, Al?" Sprit asks. The farmer gives her a sheepish grin and shakes his head before staring down at his breakfast again.

Fei studies him. "Is the food bad? I could just ask for a new one."

Al shakes his head. "Nope. Food's completely fine."

"So why haven't you touched it?"

"Er, well." The farmer reaches for a fork with his right hand and attempts to cut apart some sausage. After struggling and failing for a minute, Fei speaks her thoughts.

"Why don't you use two hands?" Fei says. "In fact, aren't you left handed?"

"Uh."

"Let me see your other hand."

Al raises the arm that has been hiding under the table for the entire feast and shows it to Fei. The fingers on his left hand seem to be fixed in a rather uncomfortable position.

"Whoa. Why were you hiding this?" Fei asks.

Al scratches his neck. "I didn't want to force another day off."

Fei gives him a harsh look. "Al, my team goes before anything else. I can't have you walking around in the Labyrinth like this."

Dorian, who has been ignoring Pierce's and Carrick's repartee, studies his hand, before lighting up the way she does when she gets an idea. "Oh. I know!" The 'princess' suddenly stands and makes her way around the table to Al. "Give me your hand."

Al, unsure about trusting the dull girl with his destroyed appendages, just stares at her.

"Give it."

Al flinches. "Ah! Okay, okay." Al gives her his hand.

Dorian's brows furrow as she examines his hand. "This doesn't really seem too bad. You just have to-" Al's scream travels across the inn, alerting some of the workers. Pierce and Carrick shut up all of a sudden. "Be quiet. This shouldn't even hurt." Dorian rearranges his ring finger and twists his hand, causing him to shout again. "Hey! Man up, why don't you?"

Al isn't quite sure what is going on anymore, but he could see, and feel, the loud, most likely uneducated princess playing with his fragile and ruined fingers.

"Dorian, do you know what you're doing?" Fei asks.

"Maybe. Probably." Dorian slides his index finger a bit closer to his middle finger, causing him to wince again.

Fei nods. "What the hell?" Al asks. "I never-NGH-agreed to any-AGH-of this non-EAGH-sense!"

Dorian stops and stares at his hand for a minute. "I think there's just this to do," The princess takes his index finger in her fist. "Do I have to worry about any baby crying?" She asks. Al quickly nods his head. Dorian sighs. "Fine then."

Dorian bends his finger far into an angle that it should not be able to achieve, and quickly sets it back to where it was. Al clenches his teeth hard and fights back a tear.

Dorian lets go of his hand and stands up straight. "There, that's better, isn't it?" She gives him a friendly smile. Al stares, bewildered, before staring back down at his mutilated ha- well actually, it looks completely fine now. Moving it feels weird, but other than that, everything is back to normal. Did Dorian actually know what she was doing? Not hearing an answer, the princess giggles. "How are you going to survive in the labyrinth if you're going to cry like a baby when someone fixes you?"

Al looks up from his hand and stares at her prideful face. "Um. Thanks."

Dorian nods. "You're welcome. Just in case we have to do this again, learn to take some pain. Are you a real man? Most children should be able to go through that without bawling."

Al is beginning to become quite annoyed with these belittling comments. "What makes you think children can have their bones moved around like normal, unimportant objects without crying?"

"Because bones are like normal, unimportant objects." Dorian answers. Al stares. What?

"I don't think that makes sense, Dorian." Al quietly says.

Dorian decides to ignore that. "Eat your breakfast."

"Stop acting like my mother."

"If I were acting like your mother, then you wouldn't be part of an exploration team."

Al stares. She's right. "Fine, but stop. I don't need you to keep track of my needs."

"I will if I want to. Aren't I a princess?"

"Princesses don't join exploration guilds on their own accord," Al replies. "Especially without the supervision of a guard."

Dorian's eyes widen. "Well, I've always wanted a little brother, and you're the only boy here who's younger than me." Dorian says. She says it angrily, but she seems sincere. Al shakes his head.

"I'm twenty years old."

The other four members of Saturos all say in unison, "No you're not."

Dorian nods in approval. "Fine, then. From now on, you're my little brother." Al groans in response.

The other eight watch as they continue their banter. What is this?

"Idiots, those two." Sprit comments. Pierce looks on at them in amusement and worry.

"That's probably really annoying. Sorry, Al." The gladiator says as he picks up an orange.

Sprit leans in and gets Harvey's attention. "You reached the third floor, did you? What is it like?"

"We didn't get very far before we were attacked by giant pink frogs," Harvey replies. "From what I could tell, that place seems to have a lot of rivers."

Sprit's eyes light up. "Perfect! I can't wait."

"Hmm? Perfect? Why so?" Harvey questions.

Sprit smirks. "That means I'll be able to fish in rivers now. It's hard to find a nice place to fish in the town. The harbors are full of people and I don't like beaches, which are also full of people. Inver Port is alright, but it's busy a lot and I usually can't find the time to go there whenever it's free."

The seven begin to converse and eat. Twitch quickly finishes and heads out. "I'm going out, Pierce. I'll be back as soon as you know it."

Pierce waves without saying anything and continues listening to Sprit's story. Zinovia suddenly stands up and turns to Fei.

"I have to go out too. I'll be back, okay?" Her face shows no emotion. Not like it ever does.

"Where?" Fei asks.

"My friend asked for me the other day. I'll be back."

Twitch and Zinovia step out of the inn doors and glance at each other for a quick second before going separate ways.

* * *

Donatello is probably working today. He's going to have to ask him about that girl that he promised. Twitch is out here making friends and his guild mates don't even know about it. Maybe he should introduce them. Well, then again, maybe not. After strolling for a while, seeing Orion in the distance and avoiding his sight, Twitch reaches the bistro and cheerily steps inside. Hopefully Donatello is present. Opening the door for a young girl with brown hair and white clothes, he begins to walk in. Wait.

Brown hair and white clothes.

"Hello, Twitch." Zinovia says.

Twitch stares as she walks farther in. "Uh, hi."

No way. That can't be it.

Twitch walks in and walks to the counter, where a girl with poofy silver hair and a stupidly festive toque is sitting. Her eyes are fixated on the counter, but her expression shows a bit of pleasure. She is daydreaming. Twitch clears his throat.

"May I speak to Donatello, please?"

The girl takes his attention and furrows her brows at him. "Uh huh. Why does Donatello keep bringing you?"

Twitch scratches his head. "You weren't concerned last time I was here. Anyway, we made a deal and I'm here for the second part of it."

The girl crosses her arms. "Fine, then. Donatello was expecting you." The girl spins around and disappears behind the door. After a minute, Donatello appears with the girl right behind him. The lovestruck chef glares at the girl for a second before smiling at Twitch.

"Hey! Nice to see you! I came out lucky!" The chef beams.

Twitch chuckles. "Wow! Great job! Congratulations."

"Thanks," Donatello scratches the back of his head, causing his toque to move around. "I've never seen Zaria cry before. I'm lucky that my first encounter with her tears came with a smile."

The girl behind her falls out of her daze and strikes Donatello a defiant stare. "You'd be surprised."

Donatello's smile fades. "Hmm?"

"You're an idiot, that's what." The girl dully says before walking to the kitchen.

Donatello stares dumbfounded as he faces Twitch again. "What?" She doesn't reply. "Yeesh. Sorry about that. She's never said anything like that before. I wonder what her problem is."

The arbalist clears his throat. "Uh, indeed. I came here to talk about that second reward you promised me," Donatello didn't say anything in response. "You know, the girl? Her sister?"

The chef stares at him blankly for a second until his face stretches and his mouth forms a small "o". "Oh yeah! I told her to come here today. She should be here…" Donatello moves his body so that his head can see past Twitch. "Where… oh, there she is!" Donatello waves cheerily at someone behind her. Twitch turns his head backward to reveal

Zinovia.

"Hi, Donny.

"Hey there, Zinovia. You asked for a tall, dark man, didn't you?"

"I did, didn't I?" Her face betrays emotion. Donatello musses her hair.

"Yes, you did. Now this is who you were looking for. Meet Twitch!" Donatello presents Twitch to Zinovia. This isn't happening. Zinovia is this guy's sister-in-law-to-be?

"Hi, Twitch. Good to see you."

"Hey, Zinovia. I didn't know you were interested in tall, dark men."

Zinovia giggles a bit at that. Donatello laughs and shakes his head. "She's cute, isn't she?"

Twitch stares at him. "How old do you think I am?"

"Not much younger than I am. It's just that my co-worker hangs out with her a lot. The one that was yelling at me just a second ago. As young as she looks, she's actually twenty years old. I figured that since Zinovia is a friend of hers, maybe Zinovia's older than she looks," Twitch gives him a bewildered stare. "She's going to become my sister-in-law!" Zinovia stares up at him.

"Sister-in-law?"

Donatello beams at her. "Yes!"

Zinovia stares back with no emotion. "Sister?" She pauses for a moment to think. "In-law?"

"Yeah! You know, since I'm marrying your sister."

Zinovia shows a slight bit of disappointment on her face. "I don't have a sister."

Donatello and Twitch stare at her in shock. "Wh-what?"

The door behind the counter bursts open to show the silver haired girl from before. "Yes, you stupid."

Donatello stares at her. "Irina! I thought Zaria said that girl was her sister."

The girl stares lazily back. "I'M her sister you bonehead. Zinovia is our cousin."

The chef with hidden eyes shakes and begins to have a mind destruction. "Wh-what? B-but, I, she... Magic!" The chef doesn't say anymore.

"Magic? What is that supposed to mean?"

Donatello looks a bit more relaxed now, but still looks shocked. "She's a magician of some sort like Zaria, right? When she pointed you out, you were talking to her and she has brown hair, and their names begin with 'Z', so I thought that maybe…"

The girl, Irina, shakes her head. "I've been your co-worker for almost a year and my name is right here." She points at the name below the shoulder of her apron. 'Irina Nowik'. "How could you not know that your girlfriend's sister has been working with you for this long period of time?"

Donatello shrugs. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"I figured you'd find out on your own, but you didn't."

Twitch watches the argument unfold before him. What did he do to get here? Unsure of what to do next, Twitch crouches down so that Zinovia is at eye level.

"Should I be going?"

Zinovia shakes her head. "I don't think so, Twitch."  
"Why not?"

Donatello clears his voice. "Sorry again, Twitch. So apparently I tried pairing you up with the wrong girl AND I've mistaken my fiancée's cousin as her sister, all the while thinking her sister was just some stupid co-worker of mine," Irina makes a strange, angry noise upon hearing this. "I'm truly sorry."

Twitch puts out a hand to stop him. "No, no. This is quite alright. I'm having fun, in a way."

"If it makes you feel any better, you can take this nagging future-in-law from me," Irina approaches him. "At least she's decent looking." Irina pauses for a moment before taking his toque and pulling it farther down his head.

"Shut up. I want no part of this." Irina demands. Despite her hostility, her voice isn't very loud. She seems more frustrated than angry.

"Hey! I can't see!" Donatello attempts to pull the toque off of his head.

"Not like you normally can. Not with the way your hair hangs over your eyes."

Donatello pulls the toque off. "What's wrong with you?"

"I don't think I can trust a future brother-in-law who hasn't acknowledged my existence."

Donatello looks at her for a second. "I'm sorry. I guess I never really noticed you while working here. In the end, I didn't really care about what your surname was."

Irina nods before turning around. "We should be getting back to work, Donny." She walks back into the kitchen. As young as she looks, she is still noticeably taller than Donatello.

Donatello watches her as she disappears behind the kitchen door before turning back to Twitch. "Sorry about that. You came here for a girl, didn't you? Well it's supposed to be her," Donatello signals to Zinovia, who is staring outside. "but I guess she isn't actually Zaria's sister. Anyway, here's Zinovia."

"I'm fourteen years old."

Donatello threw his hands in the air, fighting back frustration. "Perfect. Alright, how old are you, Twitch?" Twitch adjusts his goggles.

"Twenty-three."

"Fine. Then you can take Irina and be off with it. She's usually friendly, but it seems that she finally wanted to send me a message. If you excuse me, I have to go back to work. See you soon." Donatello gives Twitch a final, assuring smile before returning to work.

"Huh. Let's go back, Zinovia."

"Mmm."

Twitch rethinks some of Donatello's words. That man is prone to assuming the wrong things, even if he means well. As it turns out, Zinovia is only an acquaintance (thankfully) and his reward instead was Irina. Yes, she is cute, but doesn't seem to be one to win over easily, and Twitch isn't too interested in her. She seems a bit boring and she works in a place where people often get drunk. That unique toque of hers will attract unwanted attention and she hasn't shown any positive personality traits aside from forgiveness (it looked like forgiveness. Twitch isn't sure). Maybe he could try talking to her.

* * *

"Ready to go?" Harvey asks. His guild-mates nod in approval. "Let's get going."

Idle chitchat all the way there. The five talk about unimportant and important things while they walk. Their stroll is interrupted by the presence of a man with a long beard and round glasses taking their attention.

"You five! You look tough and ready for adventure! Why not help in the exploration process of the sea?" The man approaches them with a wide smile.

Harvey begins to answer the question until Rina suddenly speaks up. "We are exploring the Yggdrassil Labyrinth at the moment, I 'm terribly sorry." Rina walks ahead, causing those behind her to follow suit. However, the man in blue is persistent and grabs Harvey's sleeve.

"W-wait! You young men and women look very capable! We've been in great need of explorers of the great sea surrounding Armoroad! Please!" His face shows complete worry.

"We are going to the Labyrinth this very moment. Nothing will change our minds." Harvey responds. He isn't interested in any sort of sea exploration.

"But, aren't you an explorer of the seas? You have quite the look of it." The man asks. He does, after all, look like a pirate. The weapon, the vest, the hat, the eye patch.

The eye patch.

Harvey feels a vein in his forehead pulse very strongly. He suddenly appears taller to everyone around him as his face grows into an evil expression. "I'm not a fucking pirate." He firmly states. His facial expression and low voice keeps the man from responding. His guild mates surrounding him do not say anything either. In fact, they are all frightened out of their minds. The rest of the walk is uneventful and quiet. That look on Harvey's face never disappeared.

"I'm not a fucking pirate." Harvey was serious when he said that, but he realizes how stupid and funny it sounds.

* * *

Short chapter. What I have here is, for some reason, work that I am happy with. That part with Dorian fixing Al's hand came to me in a weird dream. Although neither Dorian nor Al were in said dream, it still made a great inspiration. I have mixed feelings about Etrian Odyssey: Millennium Maiden. I'll kind of miss the imagination aspect of the game, but then again, there will be a classic mode. I understand that they're going in a different direction for once, which isn't bad, except this is a remake of the first game, making me feel uneasy for some reason. I find Etrian Odyssey different from a lot of other games that I play because of the amount of how open ended its games are.

This chapter isn't very important, definitely not worth a 2 week wait. I don't know, as much as I hate to admit it, I had fun writing it. Donatello's a surprisingly fun character. I didn't think I'd make a big deal of Donatello before, but it seems his role has become bigger than I'd intended (although it still isn't very important). I think I just love Twitch too much. Next chapter should be quite a handful.

A lot of dialogue in this relatively short chapter. Sharp contrast to the last one. The next chapter should be similar to chapter seven in a way. While that may or may not be a good thing, I will get better. Hopefully. Bear with me.

I didn't do any sea exploration during my playthrough of the game. I may decide to expand upon sea exploration in the future anyway.

That was an abrupt end. Harvey, even if he is classed as a buccaneer, isn't really a pirate. He just looks so much like one and it agitates him.

I had too much fun writing this chapter. This isn't very important, but it will affect the events of our next chapter. Next bio is Zinovia's (Sorry Carrick). Carrick was supposed to come right after Fei. I guess this happened instead.


	9. Chapter 9: Avoidable Deficiency

Name: Zinovia Renzimius

Class: Zodiac

Hair: Brown

Eyes: Yellow

Hometown: Armoroad

Age: 14

Charm Point: White Color Scheme

After getting lost in the wrong side of Armoroad, Zinovia's mother became an adventurer. Now retired, she taught her daughter how to cast magic and forced Carrick to recruit her. Zinovia is still inexperienced, but she is determined and almost fearless. An ice specialist, Zinovia has become somewhat notorious for her fantastic expertise in ice magic, gaining the love of teenagers across the city, but becoming the subject of hatred for other Zodiacs. Despite this, she works off of raw talent, almost never practicing or studying in private.

She has a weakness for cats, nearly putting her guild-mates in mortal danger during her first encounter with a Great Lynx. Her mother's first name is Delta.

* * *

Saturos approaches the staircase leading to B3F of the first stratum. Midday, and with Eridani trailing close behind (they are visible in the distance); Al stares down at his left hand. Unsettling feel, unfamiliar flexibility. Is his hand supposed to be this flexible? Fei slaps him in the back.

"Don't let it bother you anymore. Dorian did a great job." She gives him a reassuring smile.

"Should I be concerned? What if the joints separate again at the worst possible time?" Fei's smile didn't make him feel any better.

"You aren't here to fight. You're here to gather and scout. The four of us here are here to protect you. Besides, didn't you begin your training with Carrick yet?" Fei says.

"I imagined you would inform me about that when the time comes."

"I won't be supervising your training with Carrick. Don't expect me to be the one to start it. Carrick doesn't know anything about it yet," Fei explains. Al frowns at this. Perhaps he's afraid of being shot down? "You don't have to worry about him saying no. He might be a dumbass, but he's not uncaring."

"I'm not worried about that. I just can't imagine myself fighting. I'd just slow you guys down and get hurt. I come into harm's way as it is already, placing myself inside the action won't make it better."

Fei stops walking and sharply glances at him. "You never know until you start. These things don't happen overnight, but they will happen if you take the time do it." Al shakes his head.

"I know that. I just wish I had these abilities to begin with."

The five members of Saturos walk along in comfortable silence down the labyrinth. It is a beautiful day and any danger is slight and nothing to be concerned over. The pitchfork in Al's hand feels as though it keeps slipping. Something doesn't feel right. Fei's a monk, right? Isn't she supposed to know what to do with this kind of thing? After turning a few corners, the staircase to the third floor is in view just ahead. Perhaps they could get ahead of Eridani. That blasted guild probably mapped the entirety of B2F anyway. The idea of suddenly being ahead of them appeals to Fei. Beaming, the monk quickens her pace.

"Come on, let's go!" She orders.

The five rush forward and approach the stairs. The quicker they get there, the farther ahead they can get from Eridani. After running for about a minute, the stairs are within reach now. Al, struggling to keep up, stops to catch his breath. "Hold on," pant. "Give me a second. Let's slow down a bit."

The other four halt and turn around. Frowning, Sprit scratches her neck. "That's your stricture? We've only been runnin' for a minute! Hurry! We're almost there!" She turns around and marches forward.

Al sighs and slumps his shoulders. After catching his breath a little bit, he feels a tug on his calf. At first, he dismisses it, but then it almost causes him to trip. In desperation, Al admonishes his guild mates with a yelp. As a result, whatever was grasping his leg quickly lets go and makes a strange sound. It almost sounds human. That sound is followed by four different sounding yelps, each quieter than the last. Carrick and Zinovia, the two closest to him, rush over.

"Hey Al! Is everything alright there?" Carrick calls over, jogging. Al stumbles over himself for a minute before regaining some footing. Al quickly spins around at his assailant to find nothing.

"Uh, yeah. I think so. Let's move." Al answers, brushing himself off.

Zinovia stares Al from the top down before nodding and turning around. Carrick flashes him a grin and looks back. "Are you ready for floor three?"

Al enthusiastically nods. "Of course. Anything for the team," Glancing at Fei for a moment before turning his attention back to Carrick, Al grasps his pitchfork with both hands. "I've been thinking. I'm very useless in battle. I feel like my absence wouldn't affect this guild too much since I can't fight, I know I'm a good source of information and I have keen eyesight, and I'm knowledgeable of nature; but in the end, none of that means anything if we're dead does it?"

Carrick raises an eyebrow. "Are you trying to tell me that I'm not reliable enough to protect this guild?"

Al frowns. Carrick means well, but everything he says always comes out as rude. Honestly, Al's words came out differently than he wanted. "Sorry, that's not what I meant to imply. What I mean is…" Al pauses for a moment. Not sure what to say, he continues. "I guess, I'd be of much more use if I could fight. Me and Fei came across the idea that perhaps I can be…" his voice trails off.

"If you can be…?" Carrick repeats.

"If I… uh…" Al quickly gulps and says, "If you can teach me how to defend myself and how to fight with you guys, that'd help me a lot. Please, will you take me under your wing?"

Carrick stares at him, dumbfounded. "That's it? I don't think asking a question like that should really be hard," Carrick clears his throat and adjusts his armor. "Well, then. No question, my answer is-"

"Al, move, please," A muffled voice says. Al jumps and looks behind him. There is an arm protruding from between the roots of a tree and it is getting longer. Al screams and begins to kick at the arm. "Stop! Agh! Stop! It's me, Harvey!" Al continues to stomp on the arm. Harvey's arm slowly begins to accept its fate and allows Al to keep kicking it.

Carrick grabs his shoulder and pulls him back! "Sweet lord! Al, desist! It's just Harvey!"

Al does not stop until Carrick picks him up and places him behind. Carrick then kneels down to help Harvey out. There is a bit of struggle, but eventually Harvey's entire body is submerged from the tree. After a while, four others appear from behind him. Short with brown hair, then muscular with blond hair, then regally dressed with blond hair, and then a tall dark man.

"Hey, how are you guys?" Harvey greets, albeit apathetically. He seems to be uninterested and ready to do something else. Carrick gives him a smile.

"We're doing great, actually. We're on our way down to the third floor. We'll be ahead of you again soon since you weren't able to get far at all last time." Al could see a bit of irritation forming on Harvey's otherwise cool face. If he hadn't added 'at all' to that last sentence, he wouldn't have sounded so offensive.

"I see," Harvey grunts. "Where are the others?"

"Up ahead. They probably forgot about us. Women…" Carrick trails off before continuing again. "I will assure you that we'll be on the fourth floor before you know it."

Harvey raises an eyebrow. "We?"

Carrick nods. "Yes, us. Saturos."

Al pinches the bridge of his nose. "Carrick…"

Harvey nods. "Yes, yes. And once your guild is too far, where will you be?"

The hoplite rubs his chin for a moment. "I dunno."

"So you're telling me that you need teenage girls to do your work for you?"

Carrick raises an eyebrow. "Hmm? I'll pretend I didn't hear that. Now if you excuse me," Carrick grabs Al's wrist. "We'll be catching up to the others now. See you later!' Carrick dashes off in the direction of the stairs. Unfortunately, it is his left wrist which is grabbed. As he struggles to keep up, his left hand is beginning to feel more uncomfortable and less durable. His pitchfork. Wait, his pitchfork.

"Carrick! My weapon!"

The hoplite continues sprinting, not turning his head or wiping the grin off of his face. "I can't hear you!" Carrick suddenly increases speed.

* * *

The five members of Eridani unamusingly look on at the two men running off in the distance.

"Why are they running so fast? Is he expecting us to chase him?" Rina asks.

Harvey adjusts his hat and begins walking in their direction. "I don't know, Rina. Carrick's a difficult guy to figure out. Let's follow after them. I doubt they've gotten too far," Harvey grunts. "Heh, without Carrick, perhaps the other three are dead." The other four follow suit.

Twitch scowls. "I thought we were allies. Why are you and Fei so competitive?"

Harvey looks back at him confusedly. "We are?"

"Yes. You disregard concern of each other's survival if it means an advantage."

Harvey closes his eyes in thought for a moment before nodding. "So we are," Harvey reveals a vial of water and begins to drink its contents. "Perhaps it has something to do with being a leader. I can't exactly tell what it is, but there's this strange drive that makes me need to be ahead of them. I'm sure the opposition feels the same as well."

"Yes, but..." Twitch thinks for a minute before continuing. "You still show no worry for the other's safety. Doesn't the possibility of never seeing them again worry you?"

"Not really. That is most likely a bad thing."

"If one dies, the other has no more opposition."

Harvey sighs. "That may be the case. Still, I get this feeling of 'be better' and 'see first'. I'm sure plenty of people have seen what's ahead. I want to see what they've seen before Fei does.

Twitch adjusts his goggles and watches the sky. "Whatever you say."

* * *

Carrick reaches and jumps down the stairs. Al, clinging onto his arm for dear life, feels his shoe begin to come off. No, wait. It has already. And there goes the other one. Carrick reaches the bottom of the stairs and only becomes faster.

"Carrick! What are you-"

"I can't stop!"

The two continue running out of control, Al without shoes, and eventually see the rest of Saturos in the distance, unharmed and undaunted by their absence. Carrick eventually lets go of Al and they both move in different directions. Al, unprepared for the sudden detachment, tumbles down the lane and stops near a tree. Carrick, on the other hand, clad in full armor, decides to just dive. His speed causes him to dive very far. For someone that big and that low off the ground, he has a lot of hang time. In fact, so much that he actually comes contact with Sprit and they both go straight to the floor.

"Carrick! What the hell are you doing!?" Fei shouts, staring at the scene. It appears Sprit has lost consciousness.

Carrick, absolutely terrified right at the moment, looks in different directions trying to explain his situation. Now that he thinks of it, why did he run off? "Uh, I uh. We got attacked by monsters!" Fei doesn't buy it. "We were distracted by Harvey."

"So why were you running?"

Carrick doesn't answer.

Zinovia speaks up. "If I may, I believe that the best option here is to deduct another week of pay for Mr. Kavanagh. How about you?" Carrick's face turns to one of absolute horror.

"I like that idea. In fact, all of your pay will be going to Sprit. How do you like that, Zinovia?" Fei says.

"Well that's a wonderful idea. We should do it."

"So we will."

Al, on the floor several yards away, feels something that he shouldn't be feeling in his left hand. It feels as though something is moving in there.

*CRICK*

"Ah, shit."

* * *

Pierce picks something up from the floor. "What's this?"

Dorian peeks from behind his shoulder. "It looks like a pitchfork."

"It probably is." Pierce says.

Harvey approaches them. "What's that you have there?"

"I think it's a pitchfork. It's strange to see one lying around here."

Harvey takes a closer look at the pitchfork. "Whoa. I think this is Al's." He says.

"Okay. We need to give it back, then." Dorian says.

"If we ever reach them."

Eridani walks down the stairs in silence, Pierce holding a pitchfork in his hands.

"Hey, Twitch. This reminds me of that time when we spent a week looking for the owner of that journal we found." Pierce says.

"Haha. Yeah. That sucked." Twitch replies.

"Heh. What was the name on the book? Lion Redd? I remember it was something ridiculous."

"I think it was Lyle Redd. Louis Reed? Lance Reed? It was Reed or Redd."

"Yeah that. Eventually we found his little sister, who told us he died. That sucked."

"Uh huh." Twitch gazes up at the sky that they are walking downward from.

"I have a little sister."

Twitch does a double take. "You do?"

The other three look at him curiously as well. "Um, yeah. I have, well had a little sister. I was adopted, she wasn't really sociable. Eventually she moved out of town. Then I met you and _her_. Now I'm here."

"What was her name?" Twitch asks.

"I can't remember. I didn't see her too often. Both of us were always out of the house. I think it was Leah. It started with an L. Let me tell you, she was nice to look at. Unfortunately for me, I was her adopted brother. Every time I saw her wearing something she wouldn't wear out of the house, all I could think was 'I don't think she's ever wore that underwear before' or 'is that a scar? No wait, that was there before'. No sexual tension caused by her. As little time as we spent with one another, she was still just an adoptive sister who couldn't get my libido going." Pierce chuckles to himself at this. Twitch smiles.

"Pierce…" Twitch shakes his head.

"What about your adoptive parents? Is there anything memorable about them?" Rina asks.

Pierce looks up at the sky. "Not really. Sure, they gave me food and shelter. I still ended up leaving them. Da-" Pierce suddenly falls straight to the floor and tumbles down the stairs.

"Whoa!" Harvey is almost caught in Pierce's path. He jumps to the side in surprise, then a shoe softly collides with his calf. The buccaneer picks it up. "A shoe? Why is there a shoe here? It looks kind of new."

Pierce hits the stratum floor, grass breaking his fall. After laying there for a second, he slowly gets up, rubbing his shoulder. "What did I trip on?" He calls.

Dorian presents another shoe identical to the one Harvey is holding. "I think you tripped on a shoe!"

Harvey shakes his head and takes the shoe from Dorian's hands. "Give me that. This is probably Al's. From the speed Carrick was running and the way he held onto Al, his shoes probably came off. Let's get going." Harvey jogs a bit faster down the stairs.

* * *

Al stares down at his left hand once more. He has no weapon, he has no shoes, his left hand is totaled, and one member is down because of the stupidity of another. Fei better-

"Carrick, we don't have any Ariadne Threads."

Shit.

"Fei. My hand's broken again."

Fei looks up from Sprit and frowns. "Hmm," Fei thinks to herself for a moment. Her finger on her chin and her eyes o the floor. "Okay, then. It appears we'll have to withdraw for now."

Carrick threw his arms in the air. "Bullshit! I thought you were more competitive than that!"

Fei halts him with his hand. "If there are only three of us fighting and two of us incapable of any kind of action, we won't get very far. Progress will serve no reward if we are dead. We have no Ariadne Threads, and it's a long way back. We need to think up some strategies to get back."

The four conscious members of Saturos silently ponder for about thirty seconds until Zinovia puts up a finger. "I have an idea."

Fei opens her eyes and looks in her direction. "Please, Zinovia."

"I believe the optimal action here would be simply to wait for Eridani to appear and assist us in our advance. In the event of an attack, we sacrifice Carrick."

Fei grins widely. "That's exactly the kind of idea I hoped to hear. Great!' The monk lies down on the ground and rests her hands behind her head. "Al, keep watch of that direction," Fei points to where the stairs are. "Eridani should be appearing soon." The farmer frowns at her quick assent.

"Fine, fine." The shoeless biologist sets himself down on the ground. After waiting a while, the all too familiar chatting of Eridani becomes hearable in the distance. Al stands up.

"You see something?" Fei asks.

"Not yet, but I hear them," As if on cue, their unmistakable silhouettes appear. "Oh. There they are."

* * *

Dorian stops in her tracks, then jumps and waves her arms.

"Look! Over there! Saturos!" Dorian, eager to greet them, bothers Harvey.

"Yeah, yeah. We're going over there," Harvey calms the excited princess and leads them to the young guild. That princess acts as though she were a child. As a matter of fact, she can still be considered as such. There is no danger in sight and the rivers are still running at a rapid pace. The five members seem to be waiting for them. As Harvey thought, Al is without shoes and without a pitchfork and, oh. That's unfortunate. "Your hand."

Al waves him off with his right hand. "I'll worry about that later. Do you guys have any Ariadne Threads we can borrow? We're way short on men, and we have no way to escape."

Harvey looks around. "You seem relatively fine to me. Sprit should eventually wake up. She's alive, right?" Fei gives him a short nod.

"Someone big and armor clad did something stupid and knocked her out." Carrick flinches at this. Another week without pay. This time it's entirely his fault.

"I see. I suppose we will help you. Or rather, you can do something for us." Harvey suggests.

Fei furrows an eyebrow. "You have an idea? I'd love to hear it."

"We're highly unsure of the path ahead. It would delight us if in exchange for your assistance, we give you a higher chance of survival." Harvey's eye shines once he says this.

Twitch slumps his shoulders. "What happened to 'be better' and 'see first'?"

Harvey clears his throat. "There is no catch. If you give it some thought, you're getting more out of this than we are." Fei frowns, but nods.

"If that's all we can do, then I must comply." She says. Harvey smirks.

"Excellent. Get yourselves ready. We'll be moving ahead. Don't lag behind!" Harvey walks farther into the Labyrinth. His guild mates watch him go, dumbfounded.

"What the hell is up with him?" Pierce says. The gladiator shakes his head. "Harvey! Hold up for a sec!" Harvey stops and turns around.

"Hmm?"

"I've been meaning to ask. Why is it that you order us to fight by ourselves sometimes? I can't think of a reasonable, er, reason." Pierce says.

Harvey grunts. "Think a little harder. It might come to you. Survival in the labyrinth depends on team cooperation. Think about why I'd make you try and fight by yourselves."

Pierce stares at him, dully. "I have already, I've given up."

Harvey chuckles. "I didn't think you'd quit that easily, Pierce."

The young gladiator scowls and looks ahead. "Alright then."

* * *

Carrick approaches Fei. "Are you sure about this, Fei? Harvey seems like he's got something up his sleeve. I have a bad feeling about this."

Fei rubs her head. "I can't predict what he has planned, but it seems he'll be exploiting our current state at the moment. I have no choice but to abide with his offer."

Al shakes his head. "No choice now. We should go after them."

"Of course."

* * *

Eridani comes across another large door. It seems to be the only way forward. The other two branches led to dead ends. Upon returning to the door, the five encounter Saturos again.

Harvey signals to a slightly conscious Sprit. "She doesn't look so good. Do you have a way to keep her along with us?"

Sprit shakes her head, as if to clear herself up. "Nah. I'm fine. Don't worry about me any longer."

Harvey raises an eyebrow before nodding. "If you insist." Harvey opens the door to reveal a humongous clearing. There is large, open grassland and the sky is completely visible above. Any trees or rocks are very distant and border what can be considered a room of some sort into a square.

"Whoa. This is different." Rina comments as she walks in.

Dorian steps forward. "What's this clearing for? There has to be some sort of reason for this."

Al scans the area before seeing a large object many yards away. Disproportionate, red, and quadrupedal. That seems like trouble.

"Dorian, don't go any farther." He says. Dorian turns her head around.

"Hmm? Why not?"

Al glances at the undisturbed tyrant before turning his attention back to Dorian. "In the center of this clearing," The farmer then turns to Fei and Harvey. "there is a large crimson hippopotamus settling itself here. We have to tread carefully as to not alarm the beast."

Harvey opens his mouth to speak. But Fei talks over him. "Is this a problem? Sprit is a little better now, and you won't get caught up in the fight anyway."

Al shakes his head. "Excuse me. Formido Oppugnatura Exsequens."

The leader of Saturos gives a small sigh. "Oh, that thing. In that case, how should we approach it?"

The brown haired farmer turns his attention to Harvey, those not named Harvey following along with him. "I decide what we do here?" The nine younger explorers surrounding him nod. "Fine then. I guess we can try sprinting again. Here's what we do…"

* * *

Rina and Fei warily draw near the territorial beast. The other eight are grazing the walls of the clearing attempting to sneak ahead. Both girls believe that this is an outrageous idea.

_"Distract the hippo and lead him to the entrance, then make him chase you to the door at the end."_

_ "So, this is a sacrifice?"_

_ "Sacrifice? Of course not! I'm not __**evil.**__ We just need you two, the fastest, to distract him. Here, chase him to that corner, either one from which we walked into this room, and make a wide U-turn. Then, you sprint to the door all the way over there behind him. It may feel like a lot, but I'm fully sure that you will outrun him. My ideal outcome of such plan is instead of all of us running away from him, it is only the fastest, those who are not capable runners are already at the end."_

_ Al looks ahead. "Which door will we be taking?"_

_ Harvey rubs his chin. "Taking the middle one seems like unlikely with such a plan. We will be taking the one to the left. You, Fei, Rina, wille be approaching him from the right and making a U-turn to end up on the left-most part of this clearing."_

_ Fei shakes her head. "And if this fails?"_

_ Harvey smirks. "It won't."_

At first, it did not seem like a bad call, but as they get closer to the beast, they begin to have second thoughts. The hippo is watching them closely.

"I think we're close enough," Fei says. "Provoke him."

Rina thinks for a moment. After contemplating for a minute, she acts. Rina jumps forward and throw s a knife at the hippo's foot. The knife strikes the hippo and it staggers back before letting out a loud roar. Rina sees the other explorers sprint to the door once this happens. Fei spins around and dashes off.

"Let's run!" She shouts. The hippopotamus charges forward. It is not nearly as fast as Rina, who dashes past Fei in a heartbeat, but Fei begins to feel uneasy about the beast.

* * *

After a bit of running, Sprit and Harvey reach the door first. "Are we supposed to leave this open for them?" Harvey shakes his head.

"I don't think that's a great idea. Opening the door means allowing the possibility of being attacked. We don't want to be under attack while Fei and Rina are running our way." Zinovia, Dorian, and Pierce are only several yards away.

"Are you sure Fei and Rina will be alright?"

"Of course. A common monster isn't going to gain an edge on those two."

"This is no common monster."

"To them it is."

Rina gains on Al and eventually dashes past him, causing him to flinch. Rina ran half of the length, the entirety of the width, and then at least three quarters of the length of the clearing. She is either extremely fast, or Al needs to get in better shape. A combination of the two is most likely, Al muses.

Fei, amazed by Rina's running ability, forces herself to run harder. Stamina eventually gets to her, and the hippopotamus begins to close the distance between them. What would happen if it were to get close? Hippos don't eat humans, do they? Al would know, but Al is too busy running. Fei looks to the sky and gets an idea. Mustering all of her energy, Fei backflips as high as she can and softly lands on the hippopotamus's nose. Upon landing, she kicks herself forward and lands right behind Al. The hippo falters for a moment before continuing its pursuit. Fei grabs Al's waist and pushes him forward.

"Run faster! We're almost there!"

Al puts himself on full sprint. He's never needed to run this fast before. All of the other explorers open the door for the two of them and go inside. Dorian, Twitch, and Carrick prepare to close the door as Al and Fei enter. The leader and the scout scurry inside, and the door closes. The hippopotamus makes no sound behind the door. After waiting for thirty seconds, everyone lets out a breath and assumes a resting position. Harvey chuckles and stands tall.

"Didn't I say we wouldn't fail?"

* * *

The explorers decide to rest for the next hour. While this progress is not what Harvey would have liked, progress is still progress, and they are much closer to the fourth floor than they were before. Harvey had ordered Rina to scout the other doors. According to her report, the nearest led to a campsite, the other goes farther into the labyrinth. Pierce recovered minerals under Al's instructions. While Pierce's handiwork wasn't nearly as good as Al's could have been, they still came out with a good supply. No reason to complain.

Harvey looks up at the sky. The sun is setting and it does not seem like a great idea to advance. Everyone is tired and there is an unstable explorer. With a sigh, Harvey calls for everybody's attention.

"That's enough for today. We've done what we can, and it seems that resting is of our best interest."

The nine younger adventurers give a look of relief before packing up.

"That isn't to say we'll be going back. To the door next to us is a campsite, which is why we've been hearing things back there."

"Why can't we just set up camp here?" Dorian asks.

"We have Al to tend to. I don't believe your 'healing powers' are of any use this time, Dorian."

Dorian glowers at him. Harvey stands up and directs them out. The beast has to have forgotten about them. They should be able to tread into the campsite without being disturbed. With the presence of such a beast, how did they make that a campsite? If they can sneak that within a monster's den, why don't they just make a campsite out of the habitat? After some pointless wondering, Harvey make his way to the door.

"Let's move." The others follow.

* * *

This campsite is not nearly as crowded as the one that Eridani had used in the second floor. There are only two other guilds here, and they both seem to be inactive and unsocial. Members occasionally come in and out of the tents. These tents are not artistically labeled, so Harvey cannot determine the names of the two guilds. He is sure that from who he is seen exit the tents, they haven't been encountered by Eridani yet,

Harvey leads Pierce and Twitch to a wide open and unpopulated area and tells them to get to work, handing them a tent. The buccaneer then proceeds to give them a long dialect about how they should handle the tent more carefully

"And don't make any holes." He concludes

The two watch as Harvey walks off to get a report on Al. Smiling, Pierce turns to Twitch.

"Alright. Do you remember how to do this?"

Twitch makes a goofy grin. "No idea."

The Rad City duo then proceeds to laugh uncontrollably as they attempt to assemble the currently flawless tent set.

* * *

Dorian walks through Saturos' tent flap and looks around the room. She couldn't find Al anywhere, so she'd decided to look in here and, there. Al is sitting on his sleeping bag reading a much worn book.

"Al! It's me!" Dorian cheerily waves and walks over. The farmer suppresses a sigh and smiles.

"Hey. What are you here for now?"

Dorian sets herself against a rock. For some reason, Carrick decided that setting up a tent over a rock was a good idea. Well, it's a blessing for her now.

"How's your hand doing?" She asks cheerily.

Al thinks to himself and frowns. "The medic in that other guild patched it up for me. I might have to sit the next exploration out. It sucks."

Dorian tilts her head. "Huh. Want me to-"

Al sets his book down and brings his hands in front of him. "No, no. I'm fine."

The princess lets out a breath. "You've been walking around a death trap with a broken hand. You should stay by me now. You're supposed to be my little brother."

"That little brother stuff again?" Al rubs his forehead. "Anyway, I think I'm well off sticking with guys like Fei and Carrick. I think you're better off fighting for yourself than for a skinny guy like me. As reckless as you are, you'd probably get us both killed."

Dorian stands up, furious. "I saved your butt back in the second floor! Don't forget that. If it weren't for me, you'd be bird poop. You acknowledged that and now you're denying more help? I can't believe you!" The princess turns around.

"Wait! I didn't mean that. I just wanted to say that you don't need to protect me. I'll be fine. Carrick and Fei are capable of defending me. You're in another guild, aren't you? We're supposed to be opposing forces. While we explorers are meant to assist each other in the conquest of this forsaken labyrinth, the only guild that gets credit is the one that makes it to the end. You should worry about yourself."

Dorian pouts. "I pronounced you my little brother. Siblings are supposed to stick together and assist each other through the thick and thin."

What? Al shakes his head. This little brother thing is going to be sticking around isn't it? "Fine then, but remember; your guild is your priority. I should be behind them in importance. You understand, don't you?" Dorian nods her head. "Good. Anything else you wanted to talk to me about?"

The princess enthusiastically nods. "Mmhmm! I was wondering if you were going in for a foray in two days. Time away from the labyrinth is boring since everyone goes off on their own. Want to walk around town with me?" Harvey had planned on taking another break.

Al looks around. He's never been asked to go out and have fun before. After wandering in his thoughts, for a while, he decides to tell her his excuse. "My guild is probably coming in to explore again. We've taken way too many days off," Dorian's face droops a little, causing Al to continue. "Well, I never said I couldn't yet! This hand shouldn't fix itself, so they might leave me behind." Dorian lights up.

"Okay!" The princess bounces a little before heading out the door. "See you!" Dorian leaves and Al is alone again. He can't help but wonder why that girl keeps bothering him. There isn't anything annoying about it; she just seems to come whenever he doesn't want her to. He also isn't too fond of being referred to as little brother. Al smiles before sighing. This isn't quite what he expected when he came to Armoroad, but it's definitely an interesting result of his decisions to come here. He's made new friends, he's an independent man (man, nobody has acknowledged his status as a man yet), and he has a form of work. Things can definitely be worse. Al finishes the current page of his manuscript before lying down in his sleeping bag. It isn't too late, and he can hear the familiar voices of Eridani and Saturos outside. It's been a long day for all of them, but Al doesn't have any extra energy left to use like they do. For the first time since he joined this guild, Al falls asleep instantly.

* * *

I feel that this is definitely one of my better works since chapter five. Sharp contrast to that useless chapter eight. Unfortunately, the only progress my characters have made map-wise is that they've crossed an FOE room. I've decided that since Harvey's backstory has gotten its introduction (sorta), and Twitch is beginning his own, Al might as well get started on his too. Some dialogue (such as Pierce's sister), I have realized, are completely unnecessary, but fun to write. I also think it lets out some trivia not mentioned in the bios. Useless trivia on my characters, but facts nonetheless. I promise B4F in the next chapter. (Do I?)

I understand that updates have come much slower than before, but school has stopped being so nice and has begun raining work on me. Nothing I can't handle, but it leaves me no time to work on this.

I played the Etrian Odyssey IV demo in these two weeks that I didn't update (sometimes, when I did have time from school, I'd play EOIV instead of work on this). All I can say is, Great Scot. I don't think there is a game series more spectacular than Etrian Odyssey (in my eyes anyway). I can't think of any other games that I can say I've enjoyed more than Etrian Odyssey. I've definitely played better games (Okami, Bioshock, Fallout 3, Donkey Kong 64), but I don't believe I've ever enjoyed any of them as much as Etrian Odyssey. The music, the gameplay, the story. Just a wonderful blend of everything.

I'm planning on re-writing chapters 1-3. I can see how much my writing has improved since then (not that I'm very good now, it's just that I was terrible back then).

Writing in Al's perspective is more fun than I'd expected. Maybe I just don't know how to write in the perspective of an aging man who's been through what he's been. That doesn't mean I won't stop writing Harvey.

The misfortune-prone Carrick is finally getting his bio. It's a shame it took this long. Also, I'm surprised of the lack of EOIV fanfiction here. Considering it's the most successful one in the series, I was expecting something to come up. (Don't get any ideas. I don't think I'd be able to handle two stories at once) Cheers.

I feel like these Author's Notes are getting way too long, by the way.


	10. Chapter 10: Fovea Centralis

Name: Carrick Kavanagh

Class: Hoplite

Hair: Brown

Eyes: Blue

Hometown: Armoroad

Age: 24

Charm Point: None

Carrick Kavanagh is seen by those around him as a snobbish oaf who thinks too highly of himself. Carrick himself never intends to belittle others, but his choice of words causes him to appear to be so. He displays no distinctive characteristics like the others do, much to his own chagrin. He is the only one who is aware of such distinct characteristics. A skilled protector, but a bit of a push over. He originally intended to lead a guild, but recruiting Fei Yen Gam resulted in him becoming an ordinary member.

A skilled juggler. His middle name is Olaf. Somehow, this information found its way to Sprit, and the arbalist enjoys making fun of his initials.

* * *

"T'skila?"

"Yes, Ocella?"

"The lady at the Senatus informed us of the death count in the sixth floor. Are you sure we should just be approaching it like this?"

"No, I am not. There is no doubt that we will be encountering serious danger in the labyrinth."

"Should we hold until something happens?"

"I do not believe that waiting around is tradition for an Armoroad explorer."

"What will we do?"

"Tell the others to be very well prepared."

"You don't mean-"

"We are aiming to go straight to the seventh floor today."

* * *

Harvey, as usual, awakens before everyone else does. It doesn't seem to be too late, so he allows the four to rest a little more and steps outside. Fei is standing alone outside of her tent, inspecting the contents of a bag resting on a crate. After pondering to himself for a minute, he approaches Fei.

"Up early I see. When do you plan on moving out?" Harvey attempts to begin a conversation.

Fei sighs. "That gigantic beast in the area should keep us from heading home. We'll be heading back when you do," The monk closes her bag and hops on the crate to sit. "We made the error of running inside without any Ariadne Threads. Please tell us you have any to spare."

"We have plenty."

Fei closes her eyes and chuckles. "I had a good feeling you did," The monk turns her head to Harvey, smiling. "Listen; once we reach the second stratum, what do you plan on doing?" Harvey stares at her curiously. This seems like a question with an obvious answer.

"When we enter the next stratum, we'll proceed and aim for the third one. Is there anything else we can do?"

The monk shakes her head. "You can quit exploring altogether, but you don't seem to be the type of person who would do that."

"Do you plan on quitting?"

"Nope. My squad will be doing the same thing yours will."

Harvey scratches his head. "What spurred this question up so suddenly?"

Fei's smile disappears. "The second stratum has never been conquered before. After all of these years of exploring, every guild who has challenged it has either been annihilated or disbanded. We're beginning to come close, and I'm worried for my team. We've come a long way in these short two weeks."

Harvey looks to the sky. "Never conquered," Harvey's eyes drift back to Fei, who is examining the tape around her forearm. "The mayor of my hometown's son used to be an explorer here. His final letter said that he had made it to the third stratum and that he was one of the first to do so. He must have been a bit too cocky and died before he could make it."

"From what I've heard, the sixth floor is second in death count to the second floor in this labyrinth. Apparently, there is a single area in that floor where the concentration of death is the highest."

"He must've died there."

"Most likely. To this day, the third stratum is a complete mystery to everyone. It's hard to believe that all of these floors are connected, yet mankind has not see all of them. I wonder how many of them there are. There's a good chance we will never learn."

"I see. We'd better get a move on before I become too old."

Fei laughs. "Well, I need to go wake up my guys. We need to get ready quick if we want to stick with you. Now, if you excuse me." Fei hops off of the crate and walks back inside of her tent. Harvey waits outside for a while before deciding to return to his own tent to get moving.

* * *

"Lobster." Pierce says.

"Beach." Dorian states.

"Towel." Carrick says.

"Dry." Sprit says.

"Wasteland." Twitch exclaims.

Harvey and Fei walk ahead of the group, not saying anything.

"What are they nattering about back there?" Fei asks, becoming increasingly irritated.

"No idea," Harvey answers. The man looks down at his map. "We've been walking for a while. No forks or anything yet. I'm beginning to reach the farthest western end of this chart."

Fei peers over at his map and compares it to her own. "You made the FOE's room really big. Save yourself some space." The monk says. Harvey's eyes drift from his paper to hers.

"You didn't mark the campsite or the stairs. What is that? A drawing of the sun? Why is that there?"

Fei grunts. "That's supposed to represent the giant hippopotamus. It'll help me remember where it is."

"That's why you make the drawings to scale. If that room was bigger, you wouldn't have to make that stupid logo. It looks ridiculous."

"Draw to scale? How the hell can you measure the lengths of these paths?"

Harvey shrugs his shoulders. "Estimation. It works for me."

Fei sighs. "Looks like it's about to stop working." Harvey's pencil is slowly reaching the end of the paper.

"Damn it. You're right. There better be a turn here. If we don't, I'll have no space for when we do." Fortunately for the buccaneer, a right turn becomes apparent in the near distance.

"Seems you got lucky."

Harvey smirks. "Lady Luck seemed to have gotten a crush on me lately." The group makes a right turn to find a fork. One leading left, the other leading right.

Harvey senses this and immediately reacts. "There is a gate here. Let's go this way." The buccaneer begins to travel eastward until someone grabs his arm.

"Not so fast. I want a fully charted map on this here paper. We're going this way." Fei says. Harvey attempts to ignore her but the grip on his bicep becomes much firmer.

"Well, it appears we have reached an impasse. Remember, I'm the one with the full party. You have a disabled member and a paucity of Ariadne Threads. It's either you go this way or we leave you behind."

"I thought we reached an agreement."

"I never explained when that agreement would stop taking affect. You should have questioned me more."

"Hmph, fine then, we'll be going this way. Come on, guys." Fei lets go of his arm and spins around. Harvey's stern, cocky expression drops into a surprised frown.

"W-Wait, are you serious? You, you aren't… actually going to do that… are you?" Harvey stutters.

Fei flashes a toothy grin before spinning back around. "What's this? You're becoming weak? Becoming soft? Since you've become such a soft leader, why don't I take the lead here?"

Harvey gives a short chuckle. "Heh, I'd like to see you try and lead nine people."

The monk smiles. "Fine I will."

The buccaneer shakes his head, smiling. "No can do. I won't let you. Go run off and be helpless and run west if you really insist. I don't care." The buccaneer begins to walk away.

Fei's cocky grin evaporates into a frown. "W-Wait. You aren't that heartless are you? You would never leave us behind, right?"

Harvey's smug smile widens."Fei Yen Gam, hardnosed, responsible, determined explorer shows helpless teenage girl characteristics when in danger of being abandoned." The guild leader then gives a hearty laugh. Fei apparently takes a lot of offense to this as she feels her blood boil.

"You wouldn't know! You don't know who I am!"

"Oh, I know too well!"

"What makes you say that?"

"You can learn a lot about someone after numerous life and death situations."

"I don't see how that can be so."

"Yes, yes."

Fei glares back up at his cocky face. "You don't know where I've been!"

The other eight explorers, who were originally cherishing an amusing argument between the two leaders, suddenly begin to feel the tension growing between them. All eight of them take a cautious step backward.

"Perhaps I don't. You can't blame me for cherishing this one moment of softness from the most respectable person here; from the possibility of being abandoned by a stranger, no less."

Harvey is definitely beginning to hit a soft spot, but she can not show any form of weakness. No stranger, no matter how close he is to hitting a soft spot, is going to force weakness out of her. "No, you don't. You don't understand how it can be when someone leaves you alone in this unforgiving world!" Harvey's face suddenly turns into the evil expression that struck fear into his customers before his beginnings as a guild leader. He nearly lashes out on her, but restrains himself. The other eight explorers are left speechless at the sudden change in tone. Fei quickly dashes ahead, frightened. The realization hits Harvey that perhaps the two leaders are more alike than he'd expected. The monk reaches the gate and opens it before realizing which way she ran.

"So the monk runs eastward." Harvey says.

* * *

Another hippopotamus is watching the group closely across the field.

After about five minutes without any course of action, Harvey rubs his chin. "At this point, we can just continue northward and go deeper into the labyrinth."

"So why don't we just do that?" Pierce asks.

"You aren't curious to learn about what's over there?" Harvey directs his finger to a door behind the beast. On the side opposite of the door, there is an unopened box.

"I'm not too sure if risking our lives is worth it…" Al trails off. Fei slaps him on the back.

"We've been risking our lives for over a week. Increasing the risk factor for a bit shouldn't take too much out of us. I say we take it head on." The monk says.

"I like this idea. We haven't had a good fight in a while, have we, Pierce?" Twitch asks.

Pierce unsheathes his sword. "Totally agree with you."

Twitch drops the bag over his shoulder and readies his crossbow. "I wonder what kind of food you can make out of this guy. Hey, Sprit," Sprit turns her head. "Want to see who can get him in the eye?"

The other arbalist smirks. "No. I already know who can. Lest you didn't know for yourself, we should make this a challenge." Sprit loads an arrow.

"Sounds good to me." Seeing this, the other explorers prepare to confront the Raging Tyrant.

"First to complete the task is bought dinner by the loser." Sprit says.

Al shudders. Once again, he is just dead weight. Perhaps he should stay near Carrick. The farmer sighs and approaches the hoplite. "Carrick. Do you mind if I use you as a meat shield?" Al isn't quite sure why, but for some reason he decided to talk to Carrick as though he were Carrick himself.

"Not at all. I'm supposed to be everyone's meat shield, aren't I? Just don't get in my way." That doesn't quite satisfy Al, as it seems that the hoplite misunderstood his question. Upon seeing this, Dorian lights up.

"Hey Al! Why don't you stay close to me?" She asks. The farmer sighs.

"Never mind, then. I'll just sit in the back with the arbalists." Al states. Dorian grunts upon being ignored.

"Is everyone ready? That giant mammal is definitely a great test of combat," The other eight explorers (Al is staring off into space) show signs of approval. "Great. Who wants to make the first move?" Sprit raises her hand. "In that case, everyone brace themselves." Sprit steadies her crossbow in front of her and aims for the hippo's eye. A successful hit will serve highly advantageous to the two guilds.

"Good luck." Twitch whispers. Sprit completely freezes for about five seconds.

"Bingo." She whispers. The girl pulls the trigger and the arrow flies out in a brown streak. The hippopotamus slightly rotates after the sound of the trigger waves throughout the area. The projectile finally hits its mark. The large arrow embeds itself into the hippopotamus, causing it to cry out and charge into the explorers. Carrick pushes himself ahead of everybody and sticks his shield forward. In response, Rina dashes off to the side ,whispering a single word to herself, and throws a knife in the beast's path. The beast does not notice this until it steps on the diagonally positioned knife. It stumbles forward, but its shadow does not. The beast is held back by its shadow, it is unable to move. Carrick loosens his stance and droops.

"That's boring! I want a fight!" Carrick complains. The hoplite looks around to see the other explorers throwing every attack in their disposal at the poor, immobile monster. After much abuse, the beast regains its ability to move around and charges. Harvey lunges forward and slashes at the beast's front, though loses his grip on his weapon.

"Harvey, your arms." Fei warns. The beast stomps on the cutlass with its front and hind right legs while continuing on its rampage. The buccaneer rolls his eyes and backpedals to where the arbalists are.

"I'm useless. Show me what you've got!" The man shouts across the field.

"That makes the two of us…" Al whispers.

The beast is beginning to show signs of fatigue and struggle. No one is really all too hurt. It seems as though every time it charges with the intent to kill, Rina binds it to its shadow. The constant barrage of arrows from behind is taking its toll on the beast as well. Soon enough, the beast stops moving, but does not collapse.

The group stares it down for ten seconds before relaxing. Dorian jogs over to Al.

"Did you see that? How was I?" She asks.

"Yes, I saw that. It was like watching 6 bullies beat on a poor red puppy. A big red puppy. With arrows falling from the sky." Al remarks. The farmer peeks over Dorian's shoulder to see the other explorers relaxing and conversing. The scene seems to be safe. The arbalists behind him begin to stretch and start a conversation with Harvey.

"Al. Puppies are not big, red, nor do they kill people." Dorian replies.

"I don't know; that poor hippo didn't seem to have the ability to kill any people."

"Well, that's for the better, isn't it?" Dorian smiles brightly at him. Feeling his face become a little hot, Al turns his attention towards the others, who are beginning to walk towards the door in the northeast. Some making gestures of mock respect towards the beast. Al can't help but feel a little bad for the Raging Tyrant. His field of vision is suddenly obscured by a waving palm in his face.

"Al? Are you alright? You've been staring off for a while," Dorian hasn't left him. "Your face is a little red too."

Al shakes his head. "I'm fine, we should get going."

"Tell me, Al. How do you think I did?"

The farmer tries hard to remember any particular moments in battle. After thinking for no more than a few seconds, Al spots the FOE approach them at a surprisingly high speed. Dorian, unaware of this, continues to smile at him, waiting for an answer.

"D-Dorian!" The farmer shoves the princess aside and heaves his pitchfork like a javelin. Expecting the worst, Al looks away with his hands in front of him. The hippopotamus makes a loud cry, but does not make impact. Blinking a few times, Al slowly faces forward to find the beast lying dead very few yards away from him. His pitchfork has found itself in the right eye of the monster.

Dorian approaches Al. "Wow." Is all she can say.

Al takes off his hat, staring at the corpse in front of him, baffled. "I…. Uh…. Er…" He is at a complete loss for words. Dorian pats him on the back.

"This totally changes my opinion of you. Maybe you aren't _completely_ useless." Dorian giggles. Al turns to her and frowns.

"I save your life and you thank me by calling me nearly useless?"

Dorian smiles. "Don't think too much of it. If you want, I could tell you how stupid your face looked after you threw the pitchfork."

Al walks forward. "Speaking of which, I wonder how different this would have ended if I hadn't been lucky enough to hit him in the eye."

Dorian bounces. "You'd be dead!"

Al chuckles. "So would you."

Fei and Harvey walk over to the two. "What a shot. That's some great precision there, Al." Harvey commends. Fei chuckles.

"Right in the eye… Good aim, boy." The monk pulls his pitchfork from the beast and hands it to Al; numerous parts of the eye coming along with it. Al grabs a piece of eye from his pitchfork and presents it to Dorian.

"Here, a reward for all of your hard work today."

Dorian flinches at the tissue being presented to her. "Hey, I've done more than you ever will." The princess replies.

"I know. I'm not the one receiving the present."

Harvey watches the two exchange sarcastic comments. The buccaneer gestures to Fei. "What is this?"

The leader of Saturos smiles. "Just the beginning."

"The beginning of what?"

"You'll understand quicker than you'll know."

The two arbalists approach the monster to find it's heavily mutilated eye. "Al did this with a broken hand?" Sprit examines the beast and Al's pitchfork.

Twitch palms his forehead. "Sprit, we lost to Al."

The Winterdune native grimaces. "Maybe he wasn't part of this competition to begin with?"

"He still fulfilled the task."

"That doesn't matter." Sprit says. She begins to walk away from the scene.

"Actually, I'd like a free dinner tonight." Al interjects.

Sprit stammers. "There's two of us, and one of you. How can two people pay for one person's dinner?"

Dorian appears behind Al. "Can I have some food?"

Sprit averts her gaze to Twitch. "You pay for Dorian, I'll pay for Al."

"I don't think that's fair. Why don't we split it up?" Twitch replies.

Al chuckles. "Does Dorian really deserve a reward?"

"Yes. Why wouldn't I? The one playing the role of damsel in distress deserves a reward too, right?"

Al rubs his temples. "No, I don't quite think so."

* * *

The group continue along the labyrinth. The door behind the Raging Tyrant concealed two chests containing an Amrita, which Al had said is an energy replenisher, and a jar of fire. It is as though someone had placed it there. Rina had exposed another shortcut from the treasure room to the hippopotamus den. Shortly thereafter, Rina exposed another shortcut from farther into the labyrinth to the staircase.

"Does that mean that the other shortcut was completely useless?" Dorian asks.

"I believe our efforts against the red beast were not in vain," Zinovia suddenly says. "The materials looted and the treasure salvaged from the beast will assist us in the future."

Fei laughs. "Smart girl." A door is visible in the distance. Harvey, getting frustrated with the amount of west his map is getting, turns to Fei.

"We'll be going through that door. Whatever is to the west likely is not important." The buccaneer proceeds and opens the gate. Behind it is a large clearing. There are small bodies of muddy water around and stone fountains. In the middle, another hippopotamus.

"Hey, gramps."

Harvey feels his temple bulge as he turns to see a young ninja staring up at him.

"What do you want?"

The ninja does not show any fear, rather, he gives the man a cocky smirk. "Can you teach me how to sneak past that large beast over there? Every time I attempt to reach that door, the hippo blocks my path."

Harvey examines the area, and then draws what he sees on his map. Examining it for a minute, the other explorers approaching him and asking questions to the young boy, he smiles.

"I know what to do. Just follow me."

* * *

The hippopotamus is chasing after them, the door in sight.

"Just a little more! Don't slow your pace!" Harvey shouts. Once again, Al is nearest to the pursuing beast, fleeing for dear life. Rina is right ahead of him, running backwards.

"Don't mock me!" The farmer cries. Rina spins back around and then gets ahead of everyone near her.

Rina reaches the door and immediately opens it, waiting for the others to catch up. It happens easier than expected, as almost all explorers arrive at a sufficient distance from the beast. As expected, the tyrant is right on Al's heels. The ninja lackadaisically binds the hippopotamus to its shadow, causing Al to calm down and enter through the door.

"Gee, thanks old timer! I thought I'd never come through this door. I'll make it up to you somehow!" The boy dashes off, waving his arm. Harvey shakes his head before continuing.

"Ready to move along?"

"I'm not sure if you are. You've been walking around without a weapon for a while, Harvey." Fei comments.

The buccaneer nods and keeps walking. "There are ten of us here. Eight armed explorers should successfully protect two quick witted ones."

The monk does not reply, merely following him.

* * *

As Harvey describes, the eight explorers have no difficulty fending off any assailants. Harvey and Al remain unscathed and undaunted. Soon enough, night falls upon them.

"Hey, Rina." Dorian says. The ninja turns to her.

"Do you need my help?" She asks.

The princess nods. "What will you be doing on your day off?"

The ninja suddenly stammers. "You want to know what _I_ will be doing during our rest day?"

"That's what I said, isn't it?"

Rina shakes her head. "I don't believe I can tell you that yet."

"Does that mean you'll tell me eventually? I never see you outside of the labyrinth or the inn. What do you like to do?"

"That isn't important."

Dorian frowns. "Of course it is! If we're going to be compatible guild mates, we need to become friends, right? You're younger than me; you should be having more fun!"

Rina thinks about this for a moment. "I think you're right. I'll be spending more time for myself more often."

The princess smiles. "That's what I want to hear!"

Harvey spots the staircase distantly. "Over there. The fourth floor is within reach."

"I can unveil a shortcut here, Harvey." Rina says.

"Perfect. Go investigate, and bring Zinovia along with you." Harvey commands. Rina obliges, taking Zinovia with her. After the two disappear, a single explorer exits from the stairway. He does not seem disturbed or uneasy. A single man walking through the labyrinth? The man saunters past them without acknowledging their presence.

* * *

The two girls unlock the coffers, unveiling effective medicines. Two chests containing jarred medicine in a hidden area. It seems as though someone had placed it there, expecting somebody to find them. Shortly after, Rina spots another shortcut beside one of the chests.

"There's another one. I'll investigate. Zinovia, stay close behind me." Rina orders. Zinovia obliges. There is a long stride before Rina reaches the clearing. Recognizing the area immediately, the ninja lets out a contented breath. Harvey would definitely be satisfied to learn of this.

"We've been here before," Zinovia emerges and analyzes her surroundings. "This is quite convenient. That's a nice talent you have, Rina."

The ninja smiles. "Thank you. Though I see you're quite talented yourself."

The two set to return to the shortcut, but three Venomshrooms emerge from behind a rock and confront them. Rina immediately begins an attack, while Zinovia takes the back and launches ice attacks at the fungi, carefully avoiding Rina. The ninja evades coming into physical contact with the assailants. She doesn't want to learn what this poison will do to her.

Slash, slash, stab, ice, slash, slash, slash, ice, lightning, slash.

After a while, both sides are growing tired. The monsters in grave condition, the explorers out of breath. Zinovia calls out to Rina. It seems that there is no other option.

"Rina. Get behind me." The ninja obliges, leaping to her rear. The zodiac brings her wand in front of her and recites a short incantation. Her wand slowly begins to glow red. The attackers all fired an onslaught of spores directed at Zinovia. The zodiac is forced to rush her attack, and then the entire surrounding area is engulfed in flames. The toadstools burn and perish, disappearing in the inferno. Rina grabs Zinovia and rushes through the shortcut she has created.

* * *

"Wh-what is going on? I smell smoke." Fei suddenly begins to panic and gets closer to the nearest person to her, in this moment, Twitch.

"Scared of fire are you? I wonder what those two are up to." Harvey says. Al yawns.

"I'm tired. Those two better come back. My stomach's beginning to get angry at me, too," The farmer stretches and takes a sniff. "Okay, something is burning."

Fei begins to get very edgy.

"Settle down, will you? We'll leave once the two return." Twitch attempts to calm her down.

Harvey palms the top of his hat, adjusting it, before reaching into his bag. "I'll give them five minutes. Five minutes pass, they're officially dead." The man takes out an Ariadne Thread and tosses it to Fei, then presents another one and holds it in his hand. Nobody questions his judgment, and hope for the best.

* * *

Rina, grasping Zinovia's wrist, dashes across the labyrinth. The flames do not appear to be spreading to where they are, but the ninja does not want to be associated with the fire in any way.

"R-Rina! Stop!" The zodiac attempts to stop her from continuing.

"I do not wish to be blamed in any way for this fire. The cha-" Zinovia cuts her off.

"I can stop the fire! Bring me back!" The ninja suddenly stops in her tracks, then spins around and dashes in that direction.

* * *

"Time's up."

* * *

"That takes care of that," Zinovia places her wand in her jacket pocket and turns to Rina. "The area might have been razed to the ground, but this labyrinth is known to recover from such accidents." The zodiac turns to go through the shortcut once again, being followed by Rina. Conversing about random topics until they reach the staircase once again.

Nobody is present.

Rina and Zinovia stare blankly at the empty area. The two do not know how to react.

"Festus!"

The sound bounces off the walls of the staircase, and then a small hog appears and hops onto Zinovia's feet. The zodiac stares down at it curiously before taking a step back. A tribal man hops out of the staircase and stops when he sees the two girls standing alone. He is covered in cuts, bruises, and scratches. Nonetheless, the man smiles.

"You two are alone? What could have caused that?" T'skila proceeds to pick up the boar and, after the two girls go blank for a split second, the boar is gone. Neither of the other explorers can find an answer to their question.

"Hey, wild man. Didn't I tell you to warn us before you run off like that?" Orion the Paladin emerges from the staircase. His armor is scratched and scuffed. The man's face shows no pain. Behind Orion, Ocella, Shouta, and Prince Serge appear. Immediately upon seeing the two, Ocella looms over to T'skila and begins to whisper in his ear. After listening for a bit, the man shakes his head and whispers back before turning his attention back to the two girls.

"I am going to guess that the others are completely safe, judging by the bewildered, but otherwise unsorrowful faces. If you want, I can spare you two an extra Warp Wire," Upon hearing the words 'Warp Wire', Ocella whispers in the man's ear again. "I'm sorry, Ariadne Thread. We were just ready to retire for the day as well." Rina nods, without saying anything. Satisfied, T'skila turns his attention to Zinovia.

"I'm not familiar with you, Sir." Zinovia says.

T'skila smiles at her unhesitant response. "Fearless, are you? Very well. Shouta, give me two Warp-" T'skila shakes his head. "Ariadne Threads. We're done for the day."

* * *

The eight explorers walk down the dark, busy streets of Armoroad in relative silence. The surrounding residents, tourists, and fellow explorers pay the large mob no mind. After a long, almost endless walk, the two guilds walk into Aman's Inn to a surprise.

The Tyrant Guild, along with Rina and Zinovia, are conversing at a dining table, eating dinner. The heads of each explorer turn to see the two guilds watching them in astonishment. T'skila chuckles.

"Harvey, you are very lucky I remembered Rina's face."

* * *

The three guilds crowd around the dining table, eating and chatting. Unsurprisingly, Fei and T'skila easily got along and made easy conversation. Harvey notes Ocella's lack of inclusion, but decides against starting a conversation. People who are quiet and lonely by nature are best left the way they are. Unfortunately, Fei and Dorian find her inability to socially chat adorable, and tease her. The rest of the night goes along fairly well; T'skila decided that Aman's Inn was much more comfortable and familiar than the other lodge his squad had been going to.

Because of the Tyrant Guild's sudden existence, Fei decided that Al would stay behind for the next day. The four remaining members of Saturos and the Tyrant Guild would explore together tomorrow. Dorian had been evidently excited by this, but Al had audibly groaned at the announcement without resisting. Now, it is approximately 11:45 PM, and Harvey is the only inhabitant of the inn, aside from employees, who are awake. Orion (Harvey had learned from a drunk Orion that his original name was Orland Cahill, and the man was foolish enough to legally change it to Orion the Paladin) had went out for a walk in an attempt to catch a certain constellation, Zinovia following. Twitch and Pierce had also disappeared into the city. Recent news reports of strange occurrences had begun to appear. The buccaneer knew the possibility of the two being responsible for some of them, such as the suspicious, 15 foot scarecrow that nearly crushed a foreign Duke, and the halves of arrows arranged on the beach to spell out "EDIE IS A STINGY SL". An incomplete letter 'u' followed the statement. Dreading to hear about another outrageous thing the next morning, the buccaneer goes to his quarters.

His reddish-brown locks, efficient as always. Striking, brown eye. Heavy concentration of chin hair. If Harvey doesn't shave soon, he'll have to tie it into a braid. Chuckling at his own self-report, the man turns away from his mirror and readies himself to get to bed. Day off tomorrow. Maybe he'll spend it trying to find Simao Tiago again.

Teenagers have begun taking over his life. Orion, and perhaps T'skila are the only ones he can share this burden with.

Pull through, Kentigern. You can make it. Yggdrasil, ho.

* * *

Missed me? School's pretty much finished, so I can do whatever I want. During this past month, I haven't gotten any time to work on this. Instead, I spent a lot of my time studying, doing homework, and sleeping. In case you're wondering how I survived all of that, I used what little free time I had to play (and beat) Etrian Odyssey IV. Great stuff.

I've got a lot of scene changing here, not sure if that's bad. It probably is. I don't believe I'll be scene changing as much as I did here. I kept switching between Rina and Zinovia, and the rest of the explorers too quickly.

Next chapter will have almost no labyrinth exploration, but the four members of Saturos are going to learn about Narmer. I'm excited to write Eridani's encounter with their first boss.

Also, I came to realize how overpowered these guys are when there are nine of them (not counting Al). I won't make the guilds combine forces all too often, as that'll change the balance and danger of the Labyrinth. I want to show the individual abilities of each character and how they work with their guilds.

I plan on giving T'skila and Ocella a major role in this story, though not as much as Al or Harvey. I have a lot of fun updating this thing already, but the next chapter will just be me writing what I want. It might be stupid, but I'll try to make it enjoyable and significant to the flow of this story. Nevertheless, expect a lot of Dorian and Twitch.

Back to Etrian Odyssey IV, it was just so entertaining that I still go around looking for street passes. No joke, I walked around New York City for a few hours. I went home to check. Seven for Fire Emblem: Awakening, Zero for Etrian Odyssey. The character design, story, and music in Etrian Odyssey IV are so great. I can't get myself to stop loving it for even a day. I always find myself going back to play it, even if I have beaten it. I still don't plan on making an Etrian Odyssey IV story, but it might be worth a shot. If I did, it won't be major like this one.

T'skila's bio is next. I'm not sure what I'll be doing with him yet, but I want him to be important. Ocella should follow suit.


	11. Chapter 11: Single Day of Peace

Name: T'skila Ibanurete

Class: Wildling

Hair: Brown

Eyes: Black

Origin: Tribe of Challenge

Age: 22-28

Charm Point: Tribal Appearance, Tattoos

T'skila Ibanurete is a coolheaded but audacious tribal man. As the leader of the Tyrant Guild, he operates everything that is needed for the company to exist. Despite his adventurous persona, he seems much more content in accepting and fulfilling requests than in exploring the labyrinth itself. His presence brings tranquility to other people's bodies, a phenomenon that T'skila himself has yet to realize. Along with his ability to bring people at ease, his ability to summon and dismiss creatures is invisible to the eye. His name, ironically, means "The Sudden Apostle". T'skila was lost by his original family and raised by a relatively unidentified tribe known as "The Tribe of Challenge". By the time his adoptive parents thought him to have become of age; he set out and stumbled upon Armoroad, meeting Ocella Tassell along the way. For some reason, his presence calms those around him.

The mask on his head is sacred to him, refusing to take it off for any occasion aside from bathing and sleeping. It is unknown how old he was when he had begun life in the Tribe of Challenge. He gives himself a range of 22-28 as a marker. Due to this, he regards New Year's Day as his birthday.

* * *

Harvey's eyes dart open as he hears a sound outside his door. What the hell could possibly be wrong now? Grunting, the buccaneer rises and switches the lamp to turn on. The clock reads 3:22. The man lets out a frustrated grunt and picks up a club lying beside his bed and opens the door. The lights are much dimmer than during the daytime. Harvey looks both ways to find nothing. Shrugging, Harvey begins to turn around until another door opens. Behind it is T'skila. The tan-skinned man sees Harvey, squints, and realizes who it is before smiling. His mask is present. Does he go to sleep with it?

"Hello there, Harvey. What brings you out here?" T'skila speaks all of a sudden.

Harvey looks back into his room for a second before replying. "I heard something. I guess that's what brought you out here?" The leader of the Tyrant Guild gives him a small nod.

"I suppose that noise could not have been from you, then. I believe you planned to take the day off, is that correct?" T'skila steps out of his room and leans on the wall.

Harvey tosses the club back on his bed. "Yes. We've made way too much progress way too quickly. The young guns that my squad is composed of need to let loose."

The tribal man sternly juts his chin closer to his chest. His eyes are suddenly fully obscured by his mask. "Tell me. Why were Rina and Zinovia alone in the labyrinth last night? Both of those two refused to give me a reason. They did not seem to have knowledge of your cause of abandonment. Is there something you can tell me?"

Harvey stares at him for a second before clearing his throat. "With the danger of the labyrinth and the darkness of the night, those two became separated from us. It was foolish of me to send them off on their own. I had come to the conclusion that having too many of us investigate a single shortcut was inefficient."

"That does not explain to me why you were no longer present."

"I'm an impatient man. The smell of smoke and the impending darkness had caused me to think differently, unclearly," Harvey suddenly puts on a wondrous expression. "Great shit. That was a terrible idea. Why did I send the two youngest explorers out on their own just to leave them behind?"

T'skila's expression softens. "I see you have come to the realization of your foolishness. I suppose it can happen, no matter your experience, age, or maturity. You are extremely lucky that I, or should I say Festus, had happened upon the two. They seemed very stunned when I found them."

The two girls refused to speak to Harvey or Fei during dinner. Somehow, Harvey would have to apologize to Rina, and Fei to Zinovia. Perhaps that small argument with Fei had implanted fear into her. Now that he thought of it, Fei would usually interject to plans such as that one.

"Rina's trust in me had probably diminished after what happened yesterday. I'll try to make amends."

"Perhaps your other guild members have changed their opinions of you."

"They didn't question my judgment. They easily could have, and should have. They didn't. They understand that. This is mostly on me, but the others are at fault as well."

T'skila frowns. "I am afraid there is nothing left for me to say. Good luck, Harvey. Both Rina and Zinovia are introverted young girls. I would be surprised if either of them gave their forgiveness quickly," T'skila turns around and pulls the door. Before it can close, T'skila's head peeks out, his mask clumsily getting in the way. "Rest well today." The man then closes the door. Sighing, Harvey goes back into his room, places the club on the floor, and throws himself on his bed.

* * *

Al rises. Fei had given him the day off. The farmer hops out of bed and places his hat on his head. Perhaps he'll take a long walk on the beach. Al opens the door. Walking along the hallway, the young man ponders in his head what he might do for the day. Perhaps he'll buy himself a plant and investigate its structure. He had always wanted a mountain watercress. Maybe he'll walk around town and buy himself another book. He can-

"Al! You're awake!"

Or perhaps he won't do any of that.

Sighing, Al turns his head to find Dorian. She's wearing normal people clothes, a simple white tank top and blue short pants. That damn tiara is still perched upon her head. At least her hair's down. "You're up surprisingly early."

Dorian giggles."I haven't eaten breakfast yet. Let's go out to eat!"

"We can just eat here." Al replies.

"Come on, we eat breakfast here every day! We should go to the Butterfly Bistro to eat."

"Do they serve breakfast food? It'll be weird for the other customers to see two teenagers tread inside."

Dorian furrows her eyebrows. "Are you coming or not?"

Al rolls his eyes and smiles. "Fine. Take the lead." Dorian grins and skips out the door. Al takes one final look around the inn. His guild had already disappeared. Approaching in the distance is Zinovia. What is she doing here? The memory of last night's abandonment suddenly comes back to Al, and he rushes out the door. Apologizing will be Harvey's and Fei's problem. The sun is blazing over the ocean city, the streets slightly less busy than usual. Tourists, adventurers, and residents are all passing and appearing. Al jogs up to Dorian, who spins around to face him.

"What are we going to do today?" Dorian asks.

"I don't know. Aren't you the one who planned all of this? I had assumed that you had everything planned out." Al replies. Dorian giggles.

"That's alright. We'll just go to the Butterfly Bistro to eat breakfast; and we can sort everything out there."

"Huh, okay."

* * *

Twitch steps out of the inn. Pierce is fast asleep, and he isn't patient enough to wait for him to rise. Rina seemed perfectly content in eating breakfast with Zinovia, so the arbalist decided to go to the bistro for today. He'd have to tell Donatello about his recent adventures. Twitch had finally come to the conclusion that he will not introduce Donatello to the others; hopefully Zinovia will do the same. Donatello is a bit scatterbrained already; introducing him to the other colorful cast of characters that he's acquainted with would only cause more chaos. A short walk. Not enough pedestrians to slow him down, Twitch enters the Butterfly Bistro. Not many people in here. A group of adventurers he's seen in the Labyrinth are present, Missy is here, as usual, a lone man ogling vigorously in a book, a blonde girl and a familiarly large blue hat are there as well. Ignoring the presence of Dorian and Al, Twitch advances to the counter and takes a stool. To his surprise, Irina immediately comes out of the door behind the counter, her short, poofy brown hair and gaudy toque present.

"I swear her hair color changes every time I see her." Twitch whispers.

"What was that?" The girl eyes him down.

"Nothing. Is Donatello here?"

Irina closes her eyes. "Nope. The fool has a day off. If you're here just to see him, you'd best leave." The girl then proceeds to put on a pensive expression, facing elsewhere.

"Would it hurt to order food?" Twitch asks. After being ignored for a few seconds, Twitch pokes her shoulder.

"Huh, what?"

"I'm here to eat."

Irina frowns. "That's what Missy is for. If you want food, go tell that to Missy. I'm just here to make it."

"Then what are you doing behind the counter?"

Irina's eyes widen. "I have no orders at the moment. I'm using this peaceful morning while it's still peaceful."

Twitch sighs and gets up. "You'll mislead a lot of people," Irina wastes no time to get back into daydreaming mode, paying him no mind. "Fine, then." The arbalist walks a few feet and looks around. Missy is nowhere to be found, and Twitch doesn't feel like looking for her. A good opportunity to give Irina a message. Smiling, Twitch raises his voice. "Hey, Missy! There's this obstinate, uncouth chef here that I think you should talk to! Her name is Irina!" Irina jumps and glares over to Twitch. The chef vaults over the counter and grabs his mouth from behind, pulling him back to the counter.

"Shut up! Do you want me to lose my job?"

"Unless you change your attitude, I don't think you deserve one." Irina is a full head shorter than Twitch.

The chef pouts. "I'm not usually like this. If you 're looking for somebody to blame, come here tomorrow when Donatello works."

"Can't you just stop acting the way you are now?"

Irina stares at him for a moment. "Fair enough," The chef vaults over the counter again and takes a notepad from a nearby shelf. "I'm not authorized to do this, but I think I know you enough that I'll do it anyway," Irina tosses a menu over to him. "Take your pick."

* * *

Harvey enters the dining room to eat breakfast. There is no one here. Shrugging, the man sits at the nearest table and calls a young man over to get him breakfast. While waiting, Harvey takes out the catalog Edie had given him on his last visit to the Firm. Harvey has never liked that woman. Not only does she have the face of a child, but her smooth tongue and stinginess always pisses him off. Nevertheless, the man needs a new sword, and Edie is the only one who can give him one. The catalog displays descriptions and images of each weapon, categorized by weapon type and materials. Ordered by price, Harvey takes a look at the ones that he can afford. The Makiri, which Rina has many of, were on display, along with the Pallasch that Dorian owns, and the Lance, simply titled "Lance" that Carrick carries around. Maybe he could just simply buy another cutlass. Content with his decision, Harvey eats his breakfast and heads out the door to head to Napier's Firm.

* * *

The Butterfly Bistro is beginning to pile up on customers. A princess and a farmer quickly finish up their meals and head out.

"My wallet's about to run dry," Al says. "How much money have you got on you?"

"I've got quite a bit to spare." Dorian answers. The princess reaches into her pocket and checks her wallet, before sighing.

"Well?" Al asks.

"450en."

The farmer chuckles. "That should get you somewhere. I don't recommend using all of your money. You realize a substantial amount of need to buy things when you run out of money."

"Won't I eventually just run out of money?"

"Isn't that what you've become an explorer for?"

Dorian places her finger on her chin. "Yeah, but money is slowly losing importance as time goes on."

"And why is that?"

Dorian rushes ahead and enters a large store. "Clout's Farmer's Market." Al whispers. The farmer shakes his head before stepping inside the supermarket. Dorian is waiting for him near one of the aisles.

Al looks around skeptically. "Why, how did you come to the decision to come in here?"

The princess wordlessly grabs his arm and runs along the aisles until stopping at the poultry section. Dorian lets go and suddenly spins around, facing him. "I want you to teach me how to cook."

Al blinks. "That's it? That's a bit expensive, isn't it?"

"That doesn't matter. If I learn how to cook like you do, perhaps-"

"But I'm not really all that great at cooking…"

"…perhaps Harvey will pay me extra," Dorian trails off. "I also have other reasons… come on!" Dorian takes his hand and runs amok.

Al smiles as Dorian drags him along. "If that's what she wants."

* * *

Twitch is served his merlot and takes a quick sip. With a quick thank you, Twitch glances outside, and immediately turns back around as Harvey turns his head to face him. Shrugging, the buccaneer continues on his walk to the Firm. The arbalist waits a minute before letting out a breath and continuing to drink his merlot.

Irina approaches him with something in her hand. Twitch eyes her curiously as she sets the strange object on the counter near him. Twitch watches as she leaves and decides to take a closer look at the article. It's a piece of paper, with a list of different things that Twitch can't quite comprehend. Shrugging, Twitch sits himself down again and smiles as his breakfast comes.

As the man eats his breakfast, he begins to realize the loneliness of eating alone. All his life, he's eaten with friends, almost never eating a meal without Pierce. Those eating around him are not alone, laughing, arguing, and even having business conversations. Twitch begins to grasp how unfamiliar he is with loneliness. He doesn't like this feeling. Irina is staring off into space a few yards away from him. Perhaps he can try to start a conversation.

"Chef! Hey, chef!" Twitch calls. Irina doesn't respond, so Twitch raises his voice.

"Irina!" The airhead blinks a few times before turning to his direction.

"Do you need anything?"

Twitch smiles. "Nothing really. I'm just lonely. I need someone to talk to, and you seem to be the only one I can have a real conversation with."

Irina taps her fingers on the counter. "What could we possibly be talking about?"

Twitch shrugs. "I don't know. I could tell you what the Labyrinth is like. Surely the maze here is much different than the one in Lagaard," The arbalist pauses. "Are you from Lagaard?"

"No, but I did live there for about two years. A lot of crazy things happened, and my older sister eventually demanded that we come to Armoroad. For some reason, she hasn't entered the labyrinth here yet. I'm worried for her financial security."

"So do you make the money in your house?"

"I'm the only one who lives in my house."

Twitch blinks. "I don't want to get too far into your personal life, so let's talk about something else."

"I don't mind it one bit," Irina stretches for a bit. "We have an intern, and he's taking over for about an hour of my work time. Breaks can get lonely."

"I can see. You tend to stare off into space even when I'm near you," The chef doesn't respond. "See."

* * *

Harvey steps into the firm and is immediately bumped into by a young man with white-blond hair.

"Oh, excuse me. I'm in quite a hurry." The man says. His clothing closely resembles that of Zinovia's. Harvey nods wordlessly as the man scurries off. The buccaneer stares for a moment before looking around the armory. The man immediately hovers over to the swords and examines three cutlasses. They are all equal in quality and appearance, one slightly smaller than the other three. After a quick grasp of all three, he decides that choosing a larger one is ideal. The man replaces the other two blades from where he had found them and brings them to the counter. Edie brightens up at his appearance.

"I see you've come to arm yourself? Wonderful. Let me take that for you." The woman takes his cutlass and examines it. Harvey repositions himself, and suddenly something catches his eye. A beautifully crafted handgun is on display. As a child, his now retired and long forgotten father had taught him how to use one. Harvey grabs a hold of it, admiring its grip, and twirls it in his hand. After examining it, he inserts the barrel into his pocket, and quickly brings it out again with a twirl. Content, Harvey smirks and turns his head to Edie, who had been watching his exhibition.

"How much for this?"

* * *

Pierce yawns and enters the lobby. "Hello, what are you all planning on doing today?" The gladiator stretches, expecting an answer. Not one. Still smiling, the young man asks again.

"Do you all have plans for today?" Still no response. Pierce grimly smiles and finally opens his eyes to look around. Empty.

"Everyone left."

Pierce jumps as the voice replies. Behind him, a red haired explorer wearing an ostentatious hat and rimless glasses is looking at him unamusedly.

"You overslept. Everyone has retreated to fulfill their inward appetencies. Since they are all absent, your best move here would be to quench your avarice."

Pierce tilts his head. "What?"

"Go do whatever you want today. Everyone else left you just to do that."

The gladiator chuckles unsurely and runs off.

The explorer watches him leave before adjusting her glasses and turning away. "Asinine simp."

* * *

Al and Dorian exit the supermarket, arms occupied with bags of different ingredients. Al grins at the princess humming beside him, who is examining a potato. "Do you know what the time is?"

Dorian turns to him with a curious face. "No. I don't have a watch."

Al looks up to the sky. "I'm gonna have to guess that it's about 1 p.m. How much money have you got on you?"

"120en."

"Really? How cheap was this stuff?"

"That's not important," Dorian quickly says. Al gives her a bizarre stare. "Anyway, what else should we do today?"

"We can just walk."

The princess looks off into the distance. Nope, not going that way. "Let's turn arou-"

"Hey, guys, it's Ven!" From behind the two, three young men approach with malicious smirks and surprised eyes. Sighing, Dorian turns back around to three familiar faces. These three, this group is one of the many things on her list of reasons for her abandonment of her previous activities.

"Where have you been? It's been months now, hasn't it?" The middle one says. That obnoxious black faux-hawk and small, round, green eyes were just the same as she had remembered them.

Dorian sighs and turns around. This is the exact same place she had been at when she joined these fools. To her right is "Valentine's Entertainment Newspaper". She had just taken the initials of that establishment and introduced herself as that. With such a stupid name like Ven, she wondered how they hadn't caught that.

"That isn't important, I'm just happy to have missed you all these months. I intend for that to happen again, except maybe for longer."

The young man clicks his tongue. "That's a shame, it helped to have a pretty face along, helped us get more things without having such a hard time."

"Is that all I was good for?" Dorian asks. The two behind the young man sneer.

"Don't think like that, we're all friends, aren't we?"

"I think I've found better people to hang around with since leaving you."

"Oh, no. That's quite an ignominy. Perhaps we'll just leave you to your 'better people'. I'll assume the number of people is one?" The young man glances over at Al, who had been quiet throughout all of this.

"He's one of many. He can assume that you guys are pathetic enough to only have a small group of three to go around bothering people."

"Going around bothering people, that's too bad, you were one of us before," Dorian's eyes widen at this, and the young man shakes his head, laughing quietly to himself. "I suppose it's time for us to continue on, isn't it, fellows? We've got business to take care of. See you around, Ven." All three of them put up a hand in farewell as they walked into an alley. Dorian's fists clench for just a second before she turns back to Al with a cheery face.

"Let's get going."

* * *

Twitch stares down at his now empty plate. He had been having a conversation with Irina as he ate. Eating alone sucks. Smiling, Twitch leans back. "I'm finished, can I see my bill?"

The chef stares at him before turning away. Twitch can imagine himself coming here often for different reasons. Perhaps he'll ask Missy for a quest before leaving. The restaurant is filled now, so Twitch would rather get going soon. Where to next? He isn't afraid of Zinovia or Rina hating him for last night's incident, but he doesn't want to be present for when Harvey and Fei have to explain themselves when they meet.

"Here ya go." The chef lazily hands him a slip of paper and dazes off again. Shrugging, Twitch checks the bill and finds it a bit too much for his pocket change. The arbalist checks many of his other pockets and eventually feels a slip of paper in his hands. The arbalist takes his hand out of his pocket to find a coupon that Donatello had rewarded him for his efforts. Twitch then places the amount of money he can handle and the coupon on the counter.

"Is that alright?" He asks. Irina doesn't respond. "Irina." The chef falls out of her daydreaming and gazes over to the pile he had created, and then proceeds to count the amount. After a few seconds, the chef takes the coupon.

"The hell is this?"

"That's a coupon that Donatello gave me. I can use that, can't I?"

Irina examines it for a second before waving it in his face. "The hell is this?"

Twitch takes it irritatingly and looks at it. It looks official. The date on the bottom right says that it expires on the Fifth of the Lapin.

Three years ago.

Grunting, the arbalist flips it to the other side. Written with black marker are the words: "GIVE TO DONATELLO FOR DISCOUNT, DISCOUNT DOES NOT APPLY IF GIVEN TO SOMEONE OTHER THAN DONATELLO". Twitch's expression darkens. On the bottom it reads: "NO MATTER WHAT, DO NOT GIVE TO FEMALE CHEF WITH _**STUPID**_ HAT".

"That son of a bitch."

"Yes, that son of a bitch," Irina sighs. "Even so, I expect you to pay the full amount. Either you wander around the restaurant asking for money, or you steal it." Twitch shakes his head. Perhaps he may need to do this again. It's been a while.

"You know, I like your hair, you should take off that ridiculous toque."

Irina freezes and glowers at him. "What are you going on about?"

"I'm just making a comment. You've got nice eyes too."

"Say anymore and I'll knock you off your feet."

She's setting herself up. Twitch doesn't hesitate to take the chance. He's always known how to do this. "That conversation we had before has made me realize how you sweep me off mine. Stubborn, tough girls have always been one of my weaknesses."

Irina narrows her eyes and promptly approaches him. That is exactly what he wanted. With one swift motion, Twitch swipes at her feet, causing her to fall sideways and catches her, then immediately reaches into her pocket.

Irina begins to feel the heat in her face. "W-What are you doing?"

Twitch's hand is rummaging through her pocket for a while. The chef takes great note of her current position but can't quite find a way to get out. Twitch, on the other hand, does not think twice of it and keeps searching through her pocket. Is that money? Yes, it's money! Twitch grabs it and pulls his hand out of her pocket. The man then drops her on the counter and places the money on the pre-existing pile next to her. Good job, Twitch, _run_.

"Okay, see you." The arbalist dashes off.

"Wait!"

Twitch doesn't wait.

Irina sits on the counter, dumbstruck. "I am going to kill Donatello."

* * *

"Al, there are a lot of people now. You might get lost."

"And if I do?"

"Don't worry; I'll make sure you won't!" Dorian smiles at Al, makes a hesitant face for a minute, and grabs hold of his hand. The farmer takes on a surprised expression and becomes red.

"Wh-what are you doing?"

Dorian giggles. "I'm making sure you don't get lost! Sisters hold the hands of their little brothers to make sure they don't get lost when they're in public."

Al still isn't thinking clearly. "B-but, I'm taller than you a-and I'm older."

Once again, Dorian ignores his uncounterable response and does not let go. "Anywhere you want to go?"

Al narrows his eyes. "At this point I shouldn't even try to stop you from doing things to me."

Harvey strides along the port. Armoroad, with its beaches and forests, has always had natural harbors. Just pave a few roads, decorate it with cobblestone and stone bricks, and you have yourself a perfect trading port. Harvey hasn't visited his home since his recruitment (and attainment of the position of leader) into the Eridani guild. He could have been robbed, although there isn't anything of worth in there aside.

Nevertheless, Harvey decided that visiting his empty residence is a good idea. Nothing else to do, he doesn't want to look Rina in the face just yet without Fei by his side. Returning to the inn is a bad idea. Before his days with the Eridani guild, Harvey made a living by selling canned foods such as sausage, yams, figs, meatballs, and more. The man had encountered Dorian that way. First as a cohort of a defunct but lingering mob, and then suddenly as royalty. On the night that Harvey joined the youths to form a guild, Dorian revealed, loudly and inadvertently, that she salvaged a priceless watch on the beach and sold it for an incredible amount of money, only to use it all on luxuries and drain out in no time. His home had a wide open window with an awning. His home was small, but enough for two people. He had supported himself by selling canned foods. Where did he get them? That isn't important, not even _she_ knew where he had gotten them, but she never asked. Right ahead of him, a familiar blond head holding hands with a familiar, preposterous blue hat. Both of them are holding groceries. Grunting, Harvey speeds up his pace to catch up to them. Al turns his head, red as a cherry, and his hazel eyes connects with Harvey's single one. The buccaneer internally chuckles at his bewilderment. With no hesitation, Harvey taps Dorian's shoulder. The princess turns her head to him and smiles brightly.

"Hello, Harvey! We were wondering where to go next, do you have any ideas?"

The buccaneer amusedly scratches his chin. "Not quite. What's that you got there?"

Dorian puffs her cheeks. "Harvey! That's rude. Al isn't just something I have."

Harvey narrows his eyes. "I meant what are those groceries for?"

"Oh, I wanted Al to teach me how to cook! We're going to make vegetable soup!"

Harvey grins. "You can start now, if you want."

Al raises an eyebrow. "How would we do that?"

The buccaneer laughs heartily. "Why don't you come to my place? I have a full kitchen set that hasn't been used in a few weeks. I'll let you use that if you want."

Dorian beams at him. "Really? You'd let us use your kitchen?" Harvey nods. "Perfect! Thank you, Harvey!"

Al stares at Harvey's house, unimpressed. It is incredibly small, and there is an uncovered window that seems as though it is meant for vending. Almost everything is made of wood; the awning is made of patent leather, which confuses Al, but he doesn't question it. Without a word, Harvey unlocks the door and steps inside. The two teens glance at each other for a second before entering.

Harvey's home's exterior is quite misleading, as there aren't many separate rooms, two in all. As a result, there is a lot of space, there being a kitchen counter, a dining table, and a cot making up the first room. There is another separate room that hasn't been set up for years. What surprises Al is Harvey's initial action, which is to take a picture frame from the wall and conceal it inside his vest. The man then turns around and smiles warmly.

"Can I see your ingredients?"

Dorian hands him her groceries with no hesitation, Al doing the same. The man then takes a seat at the dining table. The table has nothing on it except for a single placemat. It's rather dusty; it seems he hasn't visited the place in a while. After inspecting them for about a minute, Harvey glances back up at the princess.

"No garbanzo beans?" The princess shakes her head. "Not a problem, I have plenty," Harvey turns to open the cabinet beside him and reaches inside. The man reveals two cans of garbanzo beans. Al has never seen a can of that brand before. Actually, Al can't detect any indication of the brand on its label at all.

Al looks around. "This is a pretty nice residence you have here. I can see myself living in an establishment as cozy as this one. I've never liked convoluted, gaudy places."

Dorian tilts her head. "Convo-wha?"

Al shakes his head. "Never mind."

Harvey rises and sets the ingredients on the counter, ignoring their statements. "You said you wanted to make a vegetable soup, right?" Dorian eagerly nods her head. "Alright, watch closely. Al, help me out here." The three spend the next few hours cooking, laughing, and chatting inside Harvey's former home.

* * *

A gigantic candy store: Gaius's Pockets. Twitch has a good feeling that he'll find Pierce in here. It shouldn't take too lo-

"Oh, hey there, Twitch. I have enough money to buy one more of either of these. Should I get the giant gummy worm or the jumbo pack of this licorice?"

Found him.

"Damn, Pierce. Where do you keep these when you're not eating them?"

"What do you mean 'when I'm no eating them'?"

Twitch lightly pinches his nose in disgust. "Never mind. Get that licorice. It seems like it'll last longer than that gummy worm. We could share the licorice too."

Pierce wastes no time and replaces the giant gummy worm and it's wrapper on the shelf, keeping the pack of licorice. The gladiator then tosses the pack into a previously unnoticeable bag filled with candy.

"Is this where your wages go?"

Pierce flashes him a toothy grin. "You bet!"

* * *

Tyrant and the three active members of Saturos return to the inn at night. Sprit, Fei, and Carrick boast frustrated expressions while the Tyrant guild show faces of pride.

Twitch greets them first. "You guys seem animated. How did it go?"

Fei glares at him. "We were turned back by this blonde guy. He looked scary at first, but after a while he just looked annoying. Those dudes," Fei gestures to the Tyrant guild. "they just completed a quest within the third floor.

Harvey perks up at this statement. "What was the blonde guy wearing?"

"A red jacket, his hair was tied into a ponytail."

The buccaneer doesn't respond. "Okay, continue."

Fei obliges. "Anyway, he told us that 'only those of higher callings may go further'. The guy then told us to go to the Senatus, so we did. Took us about 4 hours to get there and then 4 hours to get back. That's eight hours wasted risking our lives. Then, the old woman at the Senatus told us to kill a damn catfish known as Narmer in the depths of the fourth floor. She gave us a slip of paper as admission into the labyrinth floor."

Harvey walks over to her. "Can I take a look?" The monk hands him a small scrap of paper. It is well organized and looks very professional. Only the best from the Senatus. "I see," Harvey looks around for a second, and quietly sighs. "Fei, can you come with me for a second?" Harvey whispers. Fei suspiciously nods and follows him as he heads towards a hallway.

"Do you need anything?"

"Yes, actually. I haven't spoken to either Rina or Zinovia today. Apologize with me."

Fei scowls at him. "Wh-what? No! They're mad because of you!"

Harvey narrows his eyes. "Zinovia's probably as disappointed in you as Rina is with me. Actually, they're both frustrated with me, I'll presume."

Fei flushes. "I don't think I've ever sincerely apologized to anyone before."

Harvey stares. "I'm quite experienced in apologizing. Though it has never gotten me anywhere due to circumstances, apologizing here may bring out good results."

The leader of Saturos looks away. "Fine, I'll accompany you in your apology."

"This is your apology too."

Fei lets out a breath. "I know…"

The two continue down the hallway and eventually find Rina and Zinovia having a conversation on a couch, both of them reading books.

"What's up?" Zinovia greets in her monotone voice.

"Hey, uh, we wanted to talk. About yesterday." Harvey starts. The man then turns to Fei, expecting her to continue for him. The girl drops her jaw at him before clearing her voice.

"Um, yes. About Harvey's choice of action. We're truly sorry for our decision to abandon you in… there…" Fei trails off. Rina and Zinovia both stare at them unamusedly, but are listening intently.

"We'll think twice before deciding to abandon anyone next time something like that happens." Harvey says.

"And I'll be sure to give my opinion whenever Harvey decides to do so." Fei adds. Neither of them say anything else, Rina and Zinovia staring at them uninterestedly.

After no response, Fei glances at Harvey, and then back to the two of them. Suddenly, Rina speaks up.

After having an experience like that, a simple apology won't exactly convince either of us," Rina watches, internally amused, by flux of expressions they're going through, and continues. "However, since both of you took the time to even give us an apology, we may take it to consideration. Don't consider yourselves forgiven just yet; it will take quite a bit of time before we forget about it."

Fei pinches her nose. "This is such a pain."

Harvey chuckles softly. "Life is pain," Harvey pauses and quickly glances down the hallway before continuing. "Anyone who says otherwise is selling something," The buccaneer then gives his reassuring smile and turns to the three of them. "Well then, would you like to have dinner with us?" The two girls oblige, and they follow their two leaders to dine.

* * *

Twitch calls good night to the other adventurers who decide to hang it up as well and enters his room. Such a relaxing day must come to an end. For Twitch, it felt very much like his times with Pierce before they left to live in Armoroad. Neither of them expected to be an important part of a large group of adventurers. The two of them had walked around town to talk about old times, and took a beach stroll for a better part of the afternoon. Pierce still doesn't know about Donatello, but that is probably a good thing. Two scatterbrained friends meeting one another should be funny, but it would only piss Irina off. Speaking of which, the arbalist looks back to that conversation with the chef. She is surprisingly easy to talk to, but for someone who gets lost daydreaming often, she can get angry very quickly. His renowned flirting only pissed her off, but it got him what he wanted. What he was originally supposed to do was to make her drop her defenses and give him an easy opportunity to steal some pocket change without any retaliation. Instead, Twitch was forced to do what he had done instead. Maybe it's been so long that he's forgotten how to win women over. Twitch very recently came to the decision that any women he will ever meet were traitors who kept dark secrets from their men. The arbalist had lived by that before his Armoroad days. Four times. Pierce often jokes about it, and Twitch sees it as an inside joke between the two. As Pierce calls him: 'Lucky with women, but unlucky with _the_ woman'. In fact, two of those women that he's been associated with have been, to his knowledge, incarcerated. No point trying again. Twitch quickly changes to comfortable sleeping clothes and crashes on his bed.

* * *

Well that took four weeks. No matter, I got this done. Once again, not too much game progression in this chapter, but a lot of character building. I'm getting really close to revealing something about Harvey. Despite how frenzied and convoluted the second stratum is, it will not take nearly as long to finish as the first stratum.

So, why did this take four weeks? No reason. I've just been doing some other things for fun. I guess a lack of ideas has taken its part as well, but I guess that's what happens when I write chapters as unimportant as this one. I guess I did reveal some things about Harvey and Twitch, but that's really it.

So, an Etrian Odyssey IV story? The possibility is getting slightly bigger, but if I do make one, it will be short. I already can't write this thing on a consistent basis, I don't think I'd be able to handle two.

I really only explained the mornings of each member of Eridani as well as Al (though Rina barely got any attention). Harvey's decision in that last chapter is sort of a reflection of mine about how people realize how foolish and thoughtless some decisions are later. I seem to get that a lot. Also, this will be the last break chapter in a long time. I plan to sail right through the second stratum, since everything after that is when the game becomes good. I still have to rewrite the first three chapters. Eh, I'll find time.

Next bio is Ocella's. Nothing too special about her. She's basically going to be support for T'skila's overall character, which I plan to be important.

I put in a few references in there. One slightly unobvious one is the grandiloquent explorer that Pierce encountered when he woke up. It would make me happy if someone could tell who it is.


End file.
